Sensex Rises Over 150 Points, Nifty Trades Above 16,000

Indian equity benchmarks on Thursday traded higher in opening deals amid positive cues from the Asian markets.

Trends on the Nifty Futures on Singapore Exchange (SGX Nifty) indicated a cautious start for the domestic indices.

The 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 183 points or 0.34 per cent to 53,697 in the early session, while the broader NSE Nifty moved 58 points or 0.36 per cent higher to trade at 16,024.

Mid- and small-cap shares were trading on a mixed note as Nifty Midcap 100 rose 0.34 per cent and small-cap shed 0.03 per cent.

12 out of the 15 sector gauges -- compiled by the National Stock Exchange -- were trading in the green. Sub-indexes Nifty Pharma and Nifty Healthcare were outperforming the NSE platform by rising as much as 1.07 per cent and 1.21 per cent, respectively.

On the stock-specific front, Apollo Hospitals was the top Nifty gainer as the stock soared 2.13 per cent to Rs 3,950.55. Tata Consumer Products, Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy's and Britannia were also among the gainers.

The overall market breadth was positive as 1,439 shares were advancing while 902 were declining on BSE.

On the 30-share BSE index, Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy's, Titan, UltraTech Cement, Hindustan Unilever, Maruti, HDFC, Bajaj Finserv, IndusInd Bank, PowerGrid, Nestle India and Reliance Industries were among the top gainers.

In contrast, Axis Bank, Tech Mahindra, Tata Steel, TCS, SBI, Infosys, HCL Tech, M&M and Wipro were trading in the red.

Also, shares of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), the country's biggest insurer and largest domestic financial investor, fell 0.14 per cent to trade at Rs 718.

Sensex had declined 372 points or 0.69 per cent to close at 53,514 on Wednesday, while Nifty had moved 92 points or 0.57 per cent lower to settle at 15,967.