The Indian equity benchmarks rebounded on Thursday ahead of weekly expiry of index futures and option contracts led by gains in index heavyweights like Infosys, HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, ITC, Larsen & Toubro, Wipro and State Bank of India amid stable global cues. The Sensex rose as much as 528 points and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday high of 16,769.
Asian shares mirrored gains in US stocks despite surge in oil prices. Japan's Nikkei rose 0.8 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 0.7 per cent and Taiwan Weighted advanced 0.4 per cent.
Wall Street took another sharp swing Wednesday, this time back to rally mode, as stocks and Treasury yields rose even as U.S. crude oil prices climbed to the highest level in more than a decade.
The S&P 500 rose 1.9 per cent, recouping its losses from earlier in the week, after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said he supports a more modest rise in interest rates this month than some investors had feared. He also said he still expects inflation, which is at its highest level in 40 years, to moderate through the year.
As of 9:27 am, the Sensex was up 315 points at 55,784 and Nifty 50 index advanced 91 points to 16,697.
Buying was visible across the board as all the 15 sector gauges, barring a few auto shares, were trading higher led by the Nifty Oil & Gas index's 1.4 per cent gain. Nifty IT, Metal, Realty and Media indices also rose between 0.5-1 per cent.
On the other hand, Nifty Bank index gave up early gains to trade on a flat note.
Broader markets were witnessing buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.8 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index climbed 1.2 per cent.
Indian Oil was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 3.3 per cent to Rs 116. Wipro, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies, Bharat Petroleum, ONGC, Coal India, Grasim Industries, NTPC and Infosys also rose between 1.3-2.6 per cent.
On the flipside, Asian Paints, HDFC Life, SBI Life, UltraTech Cement, Eicher Motors, Nestle India, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Auto and Axis Bank were among the losers.
The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 2,314 shares were advancing while 505 were declining on the BSE.
