New Delhi: The key equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, on Thursday rose fairly high in early trade taking positive cues from global markets.
At 10 am, the 30-share BSE Sensex was up 151 points to 56,970, while the broader NSE Nifty was trading at 17,091, up 52 points.
On the BSE platform, Asian Paints, Maruti, Sun Pharma, HUL, PowerGrid, NTPC, Infosys, Reliance, and others were trading in the green. Asian Paints leading the constituents with a rise of 2.25 per cent. On the flip side, HCL Tech is prime loser, with its stock going down 1.38 per cent. The other laggards were Baja Finance, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Finserv, HDFC Bank, Wipro, and others.
The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices in the broader markets also opened in the positive zone, up to 0.73 per cent higher.
Sectowise, Nifty FMCG, Metals, Pharma, and Energy indices were the leading gainers, up to 1 per cent higher. On the other hand, Nifty Bank, Financials, and IT were muted.
In the previous session on Wednesday, the Sensex plunged 537 points (0.94 per cent) to end at 56,819 points. The NSE Nifty fell 162 points (0.94 per cent) to 17,038 points.
Markets in Asia, such as in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Seoul were trading in the positive territory in mid-session deals.
The US stocks had ended mostly higher on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude dropped 1.73 per cent to $103.50 per barrel.
According to stock exchange data, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continued their selling spree, offloading shares worth Rs 4,064.54 crore on Wednesday,
V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services, told the PTI, “A clear trend in markets now, in developed markets as well as in India, is the preference for value stocks over high-priced growth stocks. This is partly a reflection of risk aversion among investors in the present context of mounting challenges posed by the expected aggressive tightening by the US Fed and the uncertainties arising from the Ukraine war that is getting prolonged.”