Sensex, Nifty Edge Higher, Sun Pharma Falls Over 2%

Indian shares opened higher on Wednesday after six straight of correction as Asian shares rose on hopes of progress on major tax reforms in the United States. The Sensex gained over 150 points in the opening trade, while the Nifty50 index crossed the 9,900 mark. However, indices failed to sustain initial gains and as of 9:30 am, the Sensex was up 45 points at 31,644 and the Nifty traded 7 point higher at 9,879. Gains in the market were led by banking stocks with Nifty Bank, the banking sub-index of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), rising 0.35 per cent.

Among Nifty stocks, Ambuja Cement, IOC, ACC, BPCL and HDFC Bank were the top five gainers rising between 0.6 per cent and 2.2 per cent. TCS, Maruti Suzuki, Hero MotoCorp, GAIL India and Power Grid were the other prominent gainers in the Nifty.

Meanwhile, Sun Pharma was the biggest loser in Nifty, down 2.32 per cent followed by Adani Ports, Indiabulls Housing Finance, Vedanta and Coal India, which fell between 1 per cent and 1.8 per cent.

Elsewhere, other Asian shares gained on Wednesday. Hang Seng was up 0.45 per cent, Taiwan Weighted rose 0.91 per cent while Nikkei traded 0.37 per cent lower. Overnight, US stocks ended flat. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.05 per cent, to 22,284.32, the S&P 500 gained 0.01 per cent while the Nasdaq Composite 0.15 per cent.