The key Indian equity indices opened on a positive note on Wednesday with the BSE Sensex rising over 400 points during the initial trade. It surged as much as 404 points to touch an intraday high of 51,430.43 points. Healthy buying was witnessed in auto and IT stocks.

At 9.28 a.m., Sensex was trading at 51,321.07, higher by 295.59 points or 0.58 per cent from its previous close of 51,025.48. It opened at 51,404.68 and has so far touched an intraday low of 51,292.93 points.

The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange was trading at 15,193.30, higher by 94.90 points or 0.63 per cent from its previous close. The top gainers on the Sensex were IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finance and Mahindra & Mahindra while the only losers were ONGC, Bharti Airtel and Kotak Mahindra Bank.

Tuesday markets' closure

On Tuesday,  healthy buying in financials and insurance companies fuelled the upmove in India's benchmark equity indices and the two stock markets ended on a positive note as FIIs pumped into Rs 2,801.87 crore in the Indian markets.

sensex

Globally, stocks steadied on Tuesday, supported by a decline in US and European bond yields. The US 10-year 'Treasury Bond' yields eased to 1.5472 per cent. Among sectors banking, IT were the main gainers while metals, media, realty fell the most.

Consequently, the S&P BSE Sensex rose by 584.41 points, or 1.16 per cent, to 51,025.48 points from the previous close of 50,441.07. The NSE Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange closed at 15,098.40, up by 142.20 points, or 0.95 per cent, from its previous close.

Mixed global cues

"Nifty has remained in the 14,920-15,120 band for the past two days seeing alternate up-down moves in this band," said Deepak Jasani- Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities. "A sustained breach of this band could result in a fresh move in that direction. Advance decline ratio has again fallen suggesting some nervousness among market participants."

According to Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services: "In a volatile day, the Indian market ended with minor positivity amid mixed global cues." "Barring private banks, IT and consumer stocks, all other sectors were most impacted. Fall in US bond yields and stronger US equity futures aided Asian markets to recover from earlier losses."

In addition, S. Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP Securities said: "Markets slipped into the red on sustained selling in metal stocks and profit booking in oil and gas stocks but bounced back sharply in late afternoon trade as Crisil sounded out an optimistic GDP forecast for the coming fiscal."

Also Read