Stock market turns positive after opening in red

New Dehi: The stock markets opened in red on Thursday but it turned positive after minutes into the trading. All sectoral indices inched higher, led by gains in metals, capital goods, infrastructure, realty, banking and auto stocks.

At 9.25 am Sensex was trading 66.38 points or 0.19 percent up at 34,250.42 while the NSE Nifty was 30.85 points or 0.29 percent up at 10,523.70.

Market sentiment bolstered after the release of GDP data yesterday, that showed the economy recorded a five-quarter high growth of 7.2 percent in the October-December quarter on good show by key sectors like agriculture, construction and manufacturing.

Besides, the combined index of the eight core sectors, including coal, steel, cement and petroleum, rose 6.7% in January, up from 3.4 percent in same month a year ago.

Major gainers that supported key indices include Tata Steel, Bajaj Auto, Sun Pharma, IndusInd Bank, Tata Motors and Bharti Airtel, rising up to 1.70 percent.

The rupee, meanwhile, depreciated 8 paise to 65.25 against the US dollar in early trade at the forex market on increased demand for the US currency from importers and firm foreign fund outflows even as the country's economy grew to 7.2 percent in the October-December quarter.

Asian stocks fell on Thursday after Wall Street marked its worst monthly performance in two years as the impact from new Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell`s hawkish-sounding comments reverberated across the broader risk asset markets.

Investors have been on edge in recent weeks amid concerns higher interest rates in advanced economies, led by the United States, could dent world growth.