Sensex rises over 150 pts; Nifty above 11,800

Domestic equity benchmark BSE Sensex rose over 150 points in early trade Wednesday tracking gains in index heavyweights ICICI Bank, L&T and RIL, amid heavy foreign fund inflow.

After swinging over 200 points within the first 15 minutes of trade, the 30-share index pared opening losses to trade 111.08 points, or 0.28 per cent, higher at 39,546.02 at 0930 hours. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty was quoting 32.60 points, or 0.28 per cent, up at 11,829.05.

In the previous session Tuesday, the BSE gauge settled 311.98 points, or 0.80 per cent, higher at 39,434.94; and the Nifty rose 96.80 points, or 0.83 per cent, to 11,796.45.

Top gainers in the Sensex pack included PowerGrid, NTPC, Sun Pharma, L&T, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Tata Motors, M&M, Vedanta and ONGC, rising up to 2.26 per cent.

While, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finance, HUL, TCS, HDFC and IndusInd Bank fell up to 0.26 per cent.

According to experts, a positive momentum has been triggered in domestic stock market as monsoon swiftly progressed towards central and north India.

Despite weakness in global markets after US Fed chief Jerome Powell tempered expectations of aggressive rate cuts in the future, domestic investors were upbeat amid heavy foreign fund inflow ahead of the union budget next week as all eyes remain on what measure the current government will undertake to boost growth, traders said.

On a net basis, foreign institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 1,157.87 crore, and domestic institutional investors purchased shares to the tune of Rs 377.22 crore, provisional data available with stock exchanges showed Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Shanghai Composite Index, Hang Seng, Nikkei and Kospi were trading on a mixed note in their respective early sessions.

On Wall Street, S&P500 and Nasdaq ended in the red on Tuesday.

On the currency front, the Indian rupee depreciated 10 paise to 69.46 against the US dollar.

The global oil benchmark Brent crude futures rose 1.31 per cent to 65.12 per barrel.