The Sensex and Nifty were trading higher by nearly 0.4 per cent owing to firm Asian cues.

At 12.30 p.m., the 30-share BSE index Sensex was up 104.92 points or 0.37 per cent at 28,260.48 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty was up 35.4 points or 0.41 per cent at 8,760.10.

Barring FMCG, all other BSE sectoral indices were trading in the green. Among them, realty index gained the most by 2.23 per cent, followed by IT 1.78 per cent, TECk 1.42 per cent and healthcare 1.07 per cent, while FMCG index was down 0.72 per cent.

Top five Sensex gainers were Sun Pharma (+2.81%), Infosys (+2.61%), Maruti (+2.04%), GAIL (+1.88%) and Tata Motors (+1.48%), while the major losers were ITC (-1.61%), L&T (-0.66%), ICICI Bank (-0.61%), Dr Reddy's (-0.57%) and Bajaj Auto (-0.53%).

Early trade

The 30-share barometer gained 109.11 points or 0.38 per cent to 28,264.67. The gauge had lost 196.06 points in the previous two sessions.

Also, the NSE Nifty rose 26.75 points or 0.3 per cent to 8,751.45.

Asian markets

Asian stocks edged to new 19-month highs on Thursday with gains underpinned by an ongoing rally on Wall Street, while the dollar came in for a bout of profit-taking after its recent bounce.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.2 per cent to its highest since July 2015. It is up by a tenth this year thanks to more optimistic earnings expectations and an unwinding of bearish emerging market bets.