The Indian equity benchmarks staged a gap up opening on Thursday ahead of weekly expiry of index futures and option contracts amid strong global cues and touched their highest levels in four months. The Sensex rose as much as 6668 points and Nifty 50 index reclaimed its important psychilogical level for the first time since April. Infosys, ICICI Bank, Tata Consultancy Services, HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries and HDFC were among the top movers in the Sensex.
As of 9:25 am, the Sensex was up 564 points at 59,373 and Nifty 50 index climbed 158 points or 0.9 per cent to 17,692.
Most of the Asian markets were trading higher following a rally on Wall Street after inflation in US eased indicating slower pace of rate hikes from US Federal Reserve. Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.9 per cent, Taiwan Weighted advanced 1.62 per cent, South Korea's KOSPI gained 1.3 per cent and Singapore's Straits Times rose 0.4 per cent.
Overnight, stocks rallied to three-month highs on Wall Street Wednesday as investors welcomed a government report showing that inflation cooled more than expected last month.
The encouraging inflation update sparked speculation that the Federal Reserve may not have to remain as aggressive about hiking interest rates as feared. The central bank has been raising rates in an effort to slow the economy in the hopes of stamping out inflation, but that risks bringing on a recession if the Fed moves too aggressively.
The S&P 500 rose 87.77 points, or 2.1 per cent, to 4,210.24. The gains broke a four-day losing streak and pushed the benchmark index to its highest levels since early May. It is now nearly 15 per cent above its mid-June low.
Back home, buying was visible across the board as all the 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty IT index's nearly 2 per cent gain. Nifty Bank, Financial Services, PSU Bank, Private Bank, Realty and Consumer Durable indices also rose over 1 per cent each.
Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.79 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.63 per cent.
IndusInd Bank was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 2.6 per cent to Rs 1,082. Tech Mahindra, Coal India, Wipro, Bajaj Finance, Titan, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank also rose between 1.6-2.6 per cent.
The overall market breadth was positive as 1,927 shares were advancing while 1,164 were declining on the BSE.
