Sensex, Nifty pare early gain; ICICI Bank, Utlratech among top gainers

Banking and energy stocks were the top gainers in the opening trade with ICICI Bank and ONGC taking the lead.

The BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty today opened in green but soon pared their early gain. Sensex advanced 158.85 points to 61,783 in early trade while Nifty climbed 49 points to 18,378.15. However, at 9.55 am, Sensex was trading at 61,457.45 points, down by 166.7 points while Nifty was trading at 18,291.90 points, down by 37.25 points.

Banking and energy stocks were the top gainers in the opening trade with ICICI Bank and ONGC taking the lead. Among other top gainers were Coal India, NTPC, and Ultratech while the top losers were ITC, TCS, Nestle India and HCL Technologies. Apollo Tyres shares jumped 5 per cent while Uflex fell 4 per cent in early trade.

In the international market, Singapore-based SGX Nifty Futures was trading with a positive bias at 18,427, up 49.5 points while Dow 30 Futures were trading at 33,671.60, higher by 134.90 points hours before the opening of the Indian markets.

In the commodity markets, December Gold Futures were trading with marginal gains on MCX at Rs 52784 per 10 gram and was up by Rs 66 or 0.13 per cent. Meanwhile, Crude Oil Futures were trading down. 

Asian share markets looked to yield mixed results while oil got weaker as investors remained cautious over China's stringent COVID policy.

Indian Rupee gained 12 paise to 81.16 against the US dollar in early trade. The rupee depreciated by 50 paise to close at 81.28 against the US currency on Monday due to strong dollar demand from corporates and oil companies and a firm dollar in the overseas markets.