Sensex, Nifty50 rise amid gains across Asia; Middle East remains in focus

Domestic equity benchmarks began Thursday's session on a positive note, looking much better than the past three days, amid gains in other major Asian markets as investors overlooked overblown concerns about a prolonged escalation in the Middle East. Both headline indices gained around half a per cent at the opening tick. The Sensex rose 414.3 points to trade at 79,530.5 while the Nifty50 added 135.5 points to 24,616.

They built on initial gains within the first few minutes of trade before pressure was visible at higher levels. The Sensex gained as much as 550.3 points, or 0.7 per cent, to 79,666.5 in early deals, while the Nifty50 gained 171.5 points, or 0.7 per cent, to an intraday high of 24,652.

At 9:20 am, the main gauges held up around 0.4 per cent each, with the 30-scrip index trading 299 points higher for the day at 79,415.2 and the broader Nifty50 at 24,583.3, up 102.8 points for the day.

Coal India, Shriram Finance, Bajaj Finance, Larsen & Toubro (L&T), Eicher Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), NTPC and Dr Reddy's -- trading around 1-2 per cent higher each -- rose the most among the 42 Nifty50 gainers.

On the flipside, Max Health, InterGlobe Aviation (IndiGo), ICICI Bank, Grasim Industries and Tata Consumer Products -- trading between 0.3 per cent and 1.1 per cent lower each -- were the top losers in the 50-scrip basket.

The early trend was largely in tandem with GIFT Nifty futures, which traded on a flat to mildly positive note before the opening bell. Until Wednesday, the Nifty50 had lost 4.0 per cent of its value in three back-to-back sessions.

The recovery was broad-based, as reflected in the midcap and smallcap segments. The Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 barometers gained around 1.0 per cent each 10 minutes into the opening bell.

Overall market breadth was extremely positive, aiding the sentiment after three days of pain for the bulls, with an advance-decline ratio of 3:1 as 2,220 stocks rose while 712 fell on BSE.

EDITOR'S TAKE | 'Nifty50 strong buy zone at 24,050-24,175'

Before the opening bell, Zee Business Managing Editor Anil Singhvi marked 24,050-24,175 as a strong buy zone in the Nifty50, with support at 24,300-24,400 levels.

He sees a strong buy zone in the Nifty Bank at 58,425-58,575 levels, with support placed at 58,900-59,200 levels.

Global trend

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan surged 2.7 per cent at the last count. Japan's Nikkei 225 was up 2.2 per cent, China's Shanghai Composite up 0.8 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng up 1.1 per cent, South Korea's KOSPI up 9.6 per cent, and Singapore's Straits Times up 0.9 per cent.

Overnight on Wall Street, the three main benchmarks secured decent gains on the back of strong macroeconomic data. The Dow Jones rose 0.5 per cent, the S&P 500 gained 0.8 per cent and the technology stocks-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.3 per cent for the day.

Dow futures were down 182.2 points, or 0.4 per cent, in early trade India time, suggesting some caution ahead in the next session on Wall Street.