Sensex Rises Over 100 Points, Nifty Trades Above 17,500

The Indian equity benchmarks traded higher in opening deals on Thursday amid a sharp drop in crude oil rates. Asian stocks eased tracking an overnight Wall Street stumble, while oil dropped sharply as the United States weighed a massive draw from its reserves to rein in surging fuel prices. Brent crude futures were down 4.4 per cent at $108.50 a barrel and U.S. crude futures fell more than 5 per cent to $101.76 a barrel.

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

The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 105 points or 0.18 per cent to 58,789 in early trade, while the broader NSE Nifty moved 32 points or 0.18 per cent up to 17,530.

Mid- and small-cap shares were trading on a positive note as Nifty Midcap 100 moved 0.34 up and small-cap shares jumped 0.68 per cent.

14 out of the 15 sector gauges -- compiled by the National Stock Exchange -- were trading in the green. Nifty Auto and Nifty FMCG were outperforming the index by rising as much as 0.51 per cent and 0.53 per cent, respectively. Nifty PSU Bank, however, edged 0.07 1.66 per cent lower.

On the stock-specific front, Asian Paints was the top Nifty gainer as the stock soared 1.40 per cent to Rs 3,124.80. JSW Steel, M&M, Tata Consumer Products and Hero MotoCorp were also among the gainers.

The overall market breadth stood strong as 1,615 shares were advancing while 579 were declining on BSE.

On the 30-share BSE index, M&M, Asian Paints, ITC, HDFC, Bajaj Finance, Axis Bank and Tata Steel were among the top gainers.

In contrast, Infosys, Bajaj Finserv, PowerGrid, Reliance Industries, L&T, Maruti, HDFC Bank were trading in the red.

Sensex had zoomed 740 points or 1.28 per cent to close at 58,684 on Wednesday, while Nifty had moved 173 points or 1 per cent higher to settle at 17,498.