Stock Market: Sensex Rises 433 Points, Nifty Trades At 17,261 Amid Positive Cues

On the stock exchanges, Reliance hit fresh record high of Rs 2,775, up 2 per cent, while IndusInd Bank, Bajaj twins, Dr Reddy's Labs, Asian Paints, and ITC were the other top gainers on the Sensex

New Delhi: The key equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, on Thursday opened higher led by gains in banking and financial stocks amid firm global cues.

At 10 am, the 30-share BSE Sensex was at 57,470, up 433 points, while the broader NSE Nifty was trading at 17,261, up 124 points.

Shares of Reliance Industries hit fresh record high of Rs 2,775, up 2 per cent, on the BSE. IndusInd Bank, Bajaj twins, Dr Reddy's Labs, Asian Paints, and ITC were the other top gainers on the Sensex index, up between 0.8 and 1.8 per cent.

On the flipside, Nestle India, Tata Steel, HCL Tech, Tech M, and Axis Bank were the only losers, down up to 1.5 per cent.

In the broader markets, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices advanced 0.8 per cent and 1.12 per cent, respectively.   

14 out of the 15 sector gauges, compiled by the National Stock Exchange, were trading in the positive zone. Nifty Bank, Nifty Financial Services were outperforming the index by rising as much as 0.77 per cent and 0.78 per cent, respectively.

In the previous trading on Wednesday, Sensex jumped 574 points (1.02 per cent) to close at 57,038, while Nifty had moved 178 points (1.05 per cent higher) to settle at 17,137.

Meanwhile, in Asia, markets in Tokyo and Seoul were trading in the green, while Hong Kong and Shanghai were quoting lower in mid-session deals.

Stocks in the US ended on a mixed note on Wednesday.

"Markets often overreact, both on the upside and downside. As sanity sets in, prices normalise. The stretched valuations of IT stocks, particularly in the mid-cap space, were the consequence of the market overreacting to excellent results and good earnings visibility. Slight disappointments in expectations swing the pendulum to the other side, depressing prices. Even though there is some margin pressure in IT, results of mid-cap IT stocks indicate that earnings momentum is strong,” V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services told the PTI.

International oil benchmark Brent crude gained 1.16 per cent to $108 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors continued their selling spree, offloading shares worth a net Rs 3,009.26 crore on Wednesday, according to stock exchange data.