Sensex gains over 200 points in early trade; Nifty nears 14,800

Mumbai: Equity benchmark Sensex jumped over 200 points in the opening session on Wednesday tracking gains in index majors Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank, despite weak trend in global markets. The 30-share BSE index was trading 207 points or 0.42 percent higher at 49,958.41. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty was quoting 69.35 points or 0.47 percent up at 14,777.15. Axis Bank was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising around 2 percent, followed by Bajaj Finance, SBI, Reliance Industries, ONGC and UltraTech Cement. On the other hand, TCS, PowerGrid, Infosys, HUL and Tech Mahindra were among the laggards. In the previous session, Sensex ended 7.09 points or 0.01 percent higher at 49,751.41, and Nifty settled 32.10 points or 0.22 percent up at 14,707.80. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital market as they offloaded shares worth Rs 1,569.04 crore on Tuesday, as per exchange data. Domestic equities look to be good at the moment despite mixed cues from Asian markets, said Binod Modi Head-Strategy at Reliance Securities. “FIIs turning net sellers for last two days can be a reason to worry in the near term. However, we continue to believe that FIIs flow should be favourable in the medium to long-term perspective as underlying strength of Indian equities remains intact,” he added. US equities witnessed sharp reversal from initial losses and finished mostly higher as Fed Chairman Jerome Powell continued to sound dovish in his testimony. Powell vowed to keep monetary policy accommodative and gave no indication that rising bond yields or possibility of higher inflation would make the Federal Reserve begin reining in its efforts to support the economy, Modi noted. Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo were trading on a negative note in mid-session deals. Meanwhile, the global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.56 percent lower at $64.12 per barrel.