Sensex rallies over 400 points in early trade; Nifty tops 12,000 mark

MUMBAI: Equity benchmark Sensex rallied over 400 points and the Nifty topped the 12,000 mark in opening trade on Wednesday tracking strong buying sentiment in index majors HDFC twins, ICICI Bank and Reliance Industries amid positive cues from global markets.

The 30-share BSE index was trading 404.42 points or 1 per cent higher at 40,948.79, and the broader NSE Nifty rose 113.55 points or 0.95 per cent to 12,010.35.

IndusInd Bank was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, surging around 3 per cent, followed by HDFC, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, SBI, Titan, Kotak Bank and Reliance Industries.

On the other hand, Nestle India, HUL and TCS were among the laggards. In the previous session, Sensex settled 112.77 points or 0.28 per cent higher at 40,544.37.

The broader NSE Nifty rose 23.75 points or 0.20 per cent to 11,896.80. Exchange data showed that foreign institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 1,585.07 crore on a net basis on Tuesday.

According to Arjun Yash Mahajan, Head Institutional Business at Reliance Securities, Indian markets look to be firm on positive global cues.

"2QFY21 corporate earnings so far have been good for the market as many companies exceeded consensus estimates and shared positive outlook. We expect Nifty to open on a positive note and trade in the range of 11,900-12,000. IT, auto and financials should remain in focus," he said.

He stated that US equities witnessed recovery as investors remained hopeful that a fiscal stimulus could happen before election.

Additionally, positive commentary from drug maker Moderna about possible availability of coronavirus vaccine for emergency use in December 2020 bolstered market sentiments.

Bourses in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul were trading on a positive note in mid-session deals, while Shanghai was in the red.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.67 per cent lower at USD 42.87 per barrel.