Sensex Rises Over 300 Points, Nifty Trades Above 17,400; Hero MotoCorp, Tata Motors Top Gainers

New Delhi: The Indian equity indices traded higher on Thursday led by gains in automobile stocks during opening deals. As of 9:23 am, the benchmark BSE Sensex jumped 320 points or 0.55 per cent to 58,317; while the broader NSE Nifty surged 97 points or 0.56 per cent to 17,420.

Asian stock markets were mostly higher while bond yields extended their decline as investors weighed on the current situation in Russia and Ukraine. Worries about a super-hawkish U.S. Federal Reserve rate-tightening campaign took a step down overnight after minutes of the latest policy meeting signalled a more measured, data-dependent approach from central bank officials.

Back home, mid-and small-cap shares were trading on a positive note as Nifty Midcap 100 index moved 0.33 per cent higher and small-cap shares gained 0.35 per cent.

On the stock-specific front, Hero MotoCorp was the top Nifty gainer as the stock soared 2.36 per cent to Rs 2,852.70. Tata Motors, Indian Oil Corp, Eicher Motors and Grasim Industries were also among the gainers.

In contrast, Shree Cement, Axis Bank, SBI Life, Sun Pharma and Britannia Industries were among the laggards.

On BSE, the overall market breadth was positive as 1,841 shares were advancing while 673 were declining.

On the 30-share BSE platform, Mahindra and Mahindra, NTPC, Titan, PowerGrid, HDFC and ITC attracted the most gains with their shares rising as much as 1.08 per cent.

Sensex had slipped 145 points or 0.25 per cent to close at 57,997; while Nifty had moved 30 points or 0.17 per cent lower to end at 17,322.