The Indian equity benchmarks staged a gap opening on Thursday, ahead of monthly expiry of futures and option contracts, led by gains in Reliance Industries, ITC, HDFC, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank amid positive global cues. The Sensex rose over 500 points and Nifty 50 index reclaimed its important psychological level of 17,000.
As of 9:34 am, the Sensex was up 358 points at 56,957 and Nifty 50 index advanced 107 points to 17,965.
After a gap up opening Nifty is expected to higher on account of short-covering rally after a sharp cut in the last four trading sessions, analysts said.
"On technical grounds, Nifty has an immediate resistance at 17,000. If Nifty closes above that, further upside can be expected towards 17,110-17,200 mark. On the flip side 16,780-16,700 will act as strong support levels," brokerage firm Nirmal Bang said.
Asian share markets rose on Thursday after Britain's central bank launched an emergency bond buying programme to stabilise a furious sell-off in gilts, though trade was skittish and sterling remained under pressure.
Japan's Nikkei rose 0.28 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 0.93 per cent and South Korea's KOSPI gained 0.89 per cent.
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 Metal index's over 2 per cent gain. Nifty PSU Bank, Realty, Private Bank, Media, FMCG and Bank indices also rose between 0.8-1.5 per cent.
Broader markets were also witnessing buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 1 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 1.4 per cent.
Hindalco was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose nearly 4 per cent to Rs 374. ONGC, Tata Steel, Tata Motrors, IndusInd Bank, Coal India, ITC, NTPC, Adani Ports, Sun Pharma, Axis Bank and UPL also rose between 1.4-3 per cent.
On the flipside, Asian Paints, Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto, Britannia Industries, Maruti Suzuki and TCS were among the notable losers.
The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 2,335 shares were advancing while 479 were declining on the BSE.
