Sensex Rises Over 100 Points, Nifty Trades Above 16,600; Consumer Goods, Durables Top Gainers

Indian equity benchmarks on Wednesday traded higher in opening deals, taking cues from the global markets. Asian stocks were mostly up despite an overnight weakness in U.S. markets.

Trends on the Nifty Futures on Singapore Exchange (SGX Nifty) indicated a gap-down start for the domestic indices.

The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 103 points or 0.19 per cent to 55,669, while the broader NSE Nifty moved 48 points or 0.29 per cent up to trade at 16,633.

Mid- and small-cap shares were positive as Nifty Midcap 100 moved 0.51 per cent higher and small-cap jumped 1.14 per cent.

All of the 15 sector gauges -- compiled by the National Stock Exchange -- were trading in the green. Sub-indexes Nifty FMCG and Nifty Consumer Durables were outperforming the NSE platform by rising as much as 1.17 per cent and 0.91 per cent, respectively.

On the stock-specific front, Asian Paints was the top Nifty gainer as the stock soared 1.87 per cent to Rs 2,913.20. NTPC, Tata Consumer Products, BPCL and Hindustan Unilever were also among the gainers.

The overall market breadth was strong as 1,863 shares were advancing while 601 were declining on BSE.

On the 30-share BSE index, Asian Paints, HUL, NTPC, ITC, Titan, Tata Steel, Maruti, M&M, IndusInd Bank, Tech Mahindra, SBI and TCS were among the top gainers.

In contrast, Dr Reddy's PowerGrid, Wipro, UltraTech Cement and HDFC twins (HDFC and HDFC Bank) were trading in the red.

Sensex had slipped 359 points or 0.64 per cent to close at 55,566 on Tuesday, while Nifty had moved 77 points or 0.46 per cent down to settle at 16,585.