Markets open higher; Nifty reclaims 7,900

Markets opened higher, amid firm global cues, helped by a rebound in IT and gains in capital goods shares led by BHEL

Markets opened higher, amid firm global cues, helped by a rebound in information technology shares and gains in capital goods shares led by BHEL.

At 9:30AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 264 points at 26,511 and the 50-share Nifty was up 81 points at 7,923. 

Asian stocks firmed up tracking overnight gains on Wall Street and weakness in the dollar after the minutes of the latest Fed meeting highlighted worries over downside risks to the global economy. Shares in Japan edged higher but a stronger yen capped upside gains. The Nikkei was up 0.5%. Shares in Hong Kong rebounded after recent correction and the Hang Seng was up 1.2% while Shanghai Composite was up 0.1% and Straits Times was up 0.8%.

Major US stock indices surged nearly 2% as the minutes of the September meeting indicated that the US Federal Reserve would not hike interest rates for a "considerable time". The S&P 500 and Nasdaq recorded their biggest single-day gains since October 2013. The Dow Jones ended up 275 points at 16,994.22, the broader S&P 500 ended up 34 points at 1,968.89 and the tech-laden Nasdaq closed 83 points higher at 4,468.59.

"For today the Nifty has to hold above its crucial 7880 levels to see the support base buying action in the market towards 7920-7935 levels. On downside crucial support exists at 7815-7800 zones and below which the market may correct towards 7777-7750 levels. We have IT major INFY results this Friday so traders need to trade cautiously," Anand Rathi Research said in a note.

Infosys rebounded from Wednesday's nearly 5% drop following a downgrade by Citigroup and was trading over 1% higher ahead of its second quarter earnings due tomorrow. TCS was also up nearly 1% while Wipro was up 0.4%. Tech Mahindra was also trading with marginal gains after the sharp correction following a downgrade by Citigroup.

All sectoral indices on the BSE were trading in the green. The BSE Capital Goods index was the top gainer up 1.5% followed by Metal, Realty, Bankex and Healthcare among others.

BHEL was up nearly 4% after the company received a huge EPC order for 2x660MW rating Supercritical Power Project from TN Generation and Distribution Corp Ltd valued at Rs 7,800 crore. L&T was also up 1%.

Pharma shares which witnessed selling pressure following reports of US Congress prive probe also rebounded and were trading with gains. Dr Reddy's Labs, Cipla and Sun Pharma were up 0.8-1.5% each.

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were up over 1% each.

Market breadth was strong with 1,220 gainers and 264 losers on the BSE.