Sensex, Nifty pare early losses to turn positive in opening trade

Mumbai: Equity benchmark Sensex pared early losses and turned positive in opening trade on Wednesday amid gains in index-heavyweights Reliance, TCS and Infosys.

After shedding over 60 points, the 30-share index made a U-turn and was trading 130.17 points or 0.26 per cent higher at 49,927.89.

The benchmark indices turned choppy in the first hour of trade. The broader NSE Nifty gained 53.85 points or 0.37 per cent to 14,701.70.

IndusInd Bank was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising around 4.50 per cent, followed by Dr Reddy's, PowerGrid, Tech Mahindra, M&M, Sun Pharma and Axis Bank.

On the other hand, Maruti, Kotak Bank, SBI and UltraTech Cement were among the losers.

"The risk-on is back in the market with massive FII inflows. There is huge delivery-based buying in HDFC twins, Tata Motors, RIL, ICICI Bank and many other bluechips," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Vijayakumar further noted that the growth-oriented bold budget, with emphasis on privatization, has facilitated this return of risk-on in the market with the Nifty spiking by 7 per cent in 2 days.

"The fundamental support to the market comes from the surprisingly good results from companies. If the present steadily declining COVID incidence trends continue, the economy will bounce back sharply, supporting the rally," he noted.

In the previous session, the 30-share BSE index ended 1,197.11 points higher at 49,797.72; and the Nifty advanced 366.65 points to close the session at 14,647.85.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) were net buyers in the capital market as they purchased shares worth Rs 6,181.56 crore on Tuesday, as per exchange data.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Hong Kong, Seoul and Shanghai were trading with losses, while Tokyo was in the green.

Meanwhile, the global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.42 per cent higher at USD 57.70 per barrel.