Indian equity benchmarks began Thursday's session modestly higher tracking positive moves across global markets on optimism about China's emergence from the depths of the pandemic, as investors digested a warning from the Fed against bets on interest rate cuts this year. Gains in oil & gas, auto and FMCG shares pushed the headline indices higher, though losses in financial stocks kept the upside in check. 

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Both Sensex and Nifty50 rose as much as 0.3 percent in the first few minutes of trade, with the 30-scrip index rising 209.4 points to touch 60,866.8 at the strongest level of the day so far. The 50-scrip gauge climbed to as high as 18,102, up 59 points from its previous close. 

As many as 45 stocks in the Nifty50 basket opened in the green. Britannia, Tata Consumer, ITC, Bajaj Auto, Sun Pharma, NTPC and BPCL -- rising around 1-2 per cent each -- were the top gainers. 

The Bajaj twins, Power Grid, Apollo Hospitals and Infosys -- trading between 0.3 per cent and 5.3 per cent lower -- were the only laggards in the 50-scrip pack.

ITC, Hindustan Unilever, Larsen & Toubro and Sun Pharma were the biggest contributors to the gain in Sensex in early deals, whereas Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv and HDFC Bank were the biggest drags. 

All of NSE's sectoral indices opened higher with the Nifty PSU Bank, the Nifty IT and the Nifty Realty being the biggest gainers rising around half a per cent each. 

The Nifty Bank -- which has 12 constituents including SBI, HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank -- rose 0.3 per cent at the open.

The Fed minutes were distinctly hawkish with the message that the restrictive policy stance would need to be maintained until incoming data provides confidence that inflation is on a sustained downward path to two per cent. Still, the US markets closed in the positive territory on expectations of a soft landing for the US economy as it continues to be resilient,"  said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services. 

"In India, the near-term challenge comes from the sustained selling by FIIs," he said. 

Global markets

Equities in other Asian markets strengthened, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan scaling a four-month peak. Japan's Nikkei 225 was up 0.3 per cent at the last count, having bounced back from a three-month low.

Overnight on Wall Street, the three main US indices finished a choppy session higher. The S&P 500 rose 0.8 per cent, the Dow Jones 0.4 per cent and the tech stocks-heavy Nasdaq Composite 0.7 per cent.