Sensex rises over 100 points in early trade, Nifty above 16,300

Mumbai: Equity benchmark Sensex jumped over 100 points in early trade on Wednesday, tracking gains in index majors HDFC Bank, Tata Steel and Axis Bank, amid a largely positive trend in global markets.

The 30-share index was trading 149.24 points or 0.27 per cent higher at 54,703.90, while the broader NSE Nifty advanced 46.95 points or 0.29 per cent to 16,327.05.

Tata Steel was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising over 2 per cent, followed by NTPC, SBI, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank and PowerGrid.

On the other hand, Tech Mahindra, Dr Reddy's, Sun Pharma and Bajaj Finance were among the laggards.

In the previous session, Sensex closed 151.81 points or 0.28 per cent higher at its lifetime peak of 54,554.66, while Nifty advanced 21.85 points or 0.13 per cent to 16,280.10.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital market as they offloaded shares worth Rs 178.51 crore on Tuesday, as per provisional exchange data.

Domestic equities look to be modestly good as of now, said Binod Modi Head-Strategy at Reliance Securities.

Given the sharp improvement in key economic indicators like GST collection, auto sales volume despite supply disruption and other high frequency indicators like e-way bills in July indicate sustainable rebound in corporate earnings in subsequent quarters. This should aid the market to sustain premium valuations, he noted.

US equities ended mostly higher on Tuesday after the Senate passed a USD 1 trillion infrastructure bill.

However, he said the spread of the delta variant of coronavirus and its potential adverse impact on global economic recovery remained in focus.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo were trading with gains in mid-session deals, while Seoul was in the red.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude fell 0.23 per cent to USD 70.47 per barrel.