Sensex climbs nearly 500 points in early trade; Nifty above 16,000

Mumbai: The benchmark indices, Nifty and Sensex, opened higher on Thursday following positive trends in global equity markets.

The 30-share BSE benchmark index climbed 498.77 points to 54,249.74 in early trade. The NSE Nifty advanced 149.7 points to 16,139.50.

Among the Sensex pack, Titan, PowerGrid, M&M, Asian Paints, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Wipro and ICICI Bank were among the gainers.

Reliance Industries, Bajaj Finserv, Hindustan Unilever, Nestle, Maruti Suzuki India and Bharti Airtel were the laggards.

Elsewhere in Asia, markets in Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai were trading in the green, while Hong Kong quoted lower.

The US markets ended higher on Wednesday.

“The sharp correction in crude, commodities like metals, and declining trend in edible oil indicate that inflation will come under control soon. Taking cues from these indicators, the bulls have again turned buyers and the near-term structure of the market has turned clearly bullish now.

“The crash in commodities and RBI’s latest initiatives to increase foreign currency inflows have the potential to arrest further depreciation in rupee. This means FIIs are unlikely to sell more. This is positive for markets,” V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday raised overseas borrowing limits for companies and liberalised norms for foreign investments in government bonds as it announced a slew of measures to boost foreign exchange inflows in efforts to curb the fall of the rupee.

The BSE benchmark climbed 616.62 points or 1.16 per cent to settle at 53,750.97 on Wednesday. The Nifty advanced 178.95 points or 1.13 per cent to 15,989.80.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude jumped 0.79 per cent to USD 101.49 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors after a day’s breather again sold shares worth Rs 330.13 crore in the capital market on Wednesday, as per exchange data.