Sensex, Nifty start on a choppy note

The benchmark Sensex rose marginally in early trade on Thursday, reversing its two-session losing streak on buying in select bluechips by domestic investors amid positive Asian cues.

Investor sentiment, however, was cautious amid global headwinds, turning key indices choppy.

The 30-share index gained 28.27 points, or 0.08 per cent, at 36,136.74 after rising to 36,1789.36 at the outset.

It also slipped below the 36,000-mark to touch a low of 35,996.68 in early trade.

The gauge had lost 470.49 points in the previous two sessions.

In similar movement, the NSE Nifty edged up by 3.65 points, or 0.03 per cent, to 10,835.15.

After many days, Nifty saw a strong reaction, as the index formed a strong bearish candle which indicates the dominance of sellers, said an Emkay Global Financial Services report.

"With this fall, the index has breached its prior 5-day low. After several failed attempts to breach the 11,000 level and strong reaction, there is a mark of strong resistance. Still, the index is in an ascending triangle and the breakout of it will dictate further trend," it added.

According to analysts, investors are taking a cautious approach given their focus on global headwinds and upcoming general election.

"While foreign institutional investors (FIIs) are sellers in the market, expectations of a slow pace in US Fed rate hike and possibility of rate cut in India will ease liquidity crunch in the market," they added.

Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) made purchases worth Rs 583.77 crore, while FIIs sold shares worth a net of Rs 775.82 crore on Wednesday, as per provisional data.

Major gainers include ITC, PowerGrid, NTPC, HCL Tech, Asian Paint, HUL, Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Finance, Bharti Airtel, TCS, Maruti Suzuki, ONGC and SBI, rising up to 1.64 per cent.

On the other hand, Tata Motors, Infosys, Tata Steel, M&M, Coal India, L&T and IndusInd Bank were under selling pressure, limiting the gains on key indices.

Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.22 per cent, Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.61 per cent, Taiwan's index was up 0.16 per cent in their early deals. Singapore's Straits Times rose 0.35 per cent and Korea's Kospi rose 0.42 per cent.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.70 per cent higher Wednesday following a batch of strong earnings reports.