Sensex rebounds 173 points, Nifty tops 8,800 in early trade

After two sessions of losses, the benchmark Sensex recovered almost 173 points and the NSE Nifty retook the 8,800-mark in early trade today on fresh spell of buying by participants.
Power, bank and auto sector stocks hogged the limelight even as the RBI maintained status quo in its monetary policy review yesterday.
Furthermore, encouraging quarterly earnings by a few more companies and a better trend at other Asian bourses too influenced sentiments.
The 30-share index was trading higher by 172.52 points or 0.61 per cent, at 28,462.44.
The gauge had lost 149.36 points in the previous two sessions.
Also, the NSE Nifty rose 52.35 points or 0.59 per cent to 8,821.40.

Brokers said fresh buying, spread over a broad-front by retail investors and funds amid a mixed trend at other Asian bourses mainly influenced trading sentiments.

Stocks of pharma major Cipla Ltd spurted by Rs 10.05 cent to Rs 613 after the company yesterday reported 43.85 per cent jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 374.83 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2016.
Shares of Hero MotoCorp rose 0.97 per cent at 3,254.95 despite the company posting a decline of 2.6 per cent in standalone net profit to Rs 772.05 crore in the October-December quarter, mainly on account of demonetisation.

The rupee too went past its three-month high in early trade today to 66.95 against the dollar.
In the Asian region, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.21 per cent, while Shanghai Composite Index was up 0.38 per cent in early trade today. Japan's Nikkei shed 0.19 per cent.