The Indian equities opened lower during the early trade on Thursday due to profit booking by investors after sizable gains in past two-to-three sessions.
At 10.28 a.m., Sensex traded at 59,272 points, down 0.5 per cent or 285 points from the previous close of 59,558 points. It opened at 59,528 points.
Nifty traded at 17,687 points, down 0.5 per cent or 93 points from the previous close of 17,780 points. It opened at 17,767 points.
Among the stocks, HDFC, L&T, SBI Life, Infosys, and Bajaj Finance were the top five losers in the morning session. On the contrary, Hero Motocorp, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Auto, Titan, and Tata Consumers were the top gainers.
The Sensex closed on Wednesday at 59,558.33 points, up by 695.76 points or 1.18 per cent from its previous close. Similarly, Nifty made gains on Wednesday, rising by 203.15 points or 1.16 per cent to 17,780 points.
Globally, markets seem set for their biggest four-day rally since November 2020 as companies from the US to Europe reported better-than-expected earnings while dip-buying returned to technology shares.
On Wednesday, markets in mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea were closed for the Lunar New Year holidays.
In Europe, investors' sentiment continued to remain steady after a rout last month. On the domestic front, the market's volume was a little lower than recent average. Among sectors realty, consumer durables, banks, IT and healthcare indices were the main gainers.
According to Siddhartha Khemka, Head of Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services: "We believe the markets will discount the Budget and shift focus to rising interest rate regime globally and consequent higher bond yields and corporate earnings growth that has remained resilient so far in the ongoing 3QFY22 earnings season.
"The forthcoming RBI policy meet assumes greater significance now with respect to the future of liquidity and interest rates. Q3FY22 earnings have been good so far, and from management commentary, Q4 numbers are expected to be strong. Overall, we remain positive on the market."
