The Sensex and Nifty opened the session on a flat note due to profit-booking by funds and retail investors.

At 9.15 a.m., the 30-share BSE index Sensex was up 54.15 points at 31,725.85 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty was up 0.55 point at 9,914.90.

Barring oil & gas and TECk, all other BSE sectoral indices were trading in the positive zone. Among them, realty index was the star-performer and was up 1.2 per cent, followed by healthcare 1.00 per cent, metal 0.5 per cent and auto 0.44 per cent, while oil & gas index was down 0.03 per cent and TECk 0.01 per cent.

Top five Sensex gainers were M&M (+1.63%), Sun Pharma (+1.14%), Dr Reddy's (+0.9%), Cipla (+0.74%) and NTPC (+0.72%), while the major losers were PowerGrid (-0.81%), Bharti Airtel (-0.65%), Kotak Bank (-0.58%), Hero MotoCorp (-0.5%) and Bajaj Auto (-0.23%).

Asian shares were a tad firmer on Thursday, taking their cues from strong US data although holiday-thinned trade and uncertainty about the impact of recent hurricanes on the US economy are likely to keep investors cautious.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia–Pacific shares outside Japan was almost flat while Japan’s Nikkei ticked up 0.1 per cent.