Expectations of higher growth push BSE, NSE up in morning trade

Indian equity markets opened flat on Wednesday following a sharp rise on Tuesday touching to a fresh 52-week high. BSE-Sensex opened 50 points up above 28,400-mark and NSE Nifty above 8,700-mark.

After opening flat, soon Sensex rallied over 100 points. At 0948 hours, Sensex was trading at 28,464.06, up 121.05 points, or 0.36% while Nifty was at 8,780, up 35.65 points, or 0.41%. 

On 30-share benchmark, among top gainers were Tata Motors (2.94%), Hero MotoCorp (2.35%), Bajaj Auto (1.71%), Asian Paint (1.67%) and HDFC (1.12%). Among losers were NTPC (1.02%), ONGC (-0.85%), Tata Consultancy Services (-0.84%), Infosys (-0.45%) and Wipro (-0.03%).

The rupee weakened by 6 paise to 67.08 against the dollar in early trade today at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market on month-end demand for the American currency from importers.

Later in the evening today, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) is set to release India's growth numbers for the first quarter of this financial year. As per the estimates, the country's GDP is likely to pick up in the range of 7.5%-7.8% on the back of good monsoon, passage of key reforms and Goods and Service Tax (GST) Bill and continue Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows.  

On the global front, Asian shares eased today following modest losses on Wall Street, but were still on track for a monthly rise as investors waited to see if upcoming job data could prod the Federal Reserve into raising interest rates as soon as September, a Reuters report said.

MSCI`s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.1% as traders awaited Friday`s job report, but looked set for a near 2% gain in August.