Sensex rises over 100 pts in early trade; Nifty near 18,300

Equity benchmark Sensex advanced over 100 points in early trade on Wednesday tracking gains in index heavyweights like Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank and Asian Paints.

The 30-share index was trading 106.71 points or 0.17 per cent higher at 61,456.97 in initial deals. Similarly, the Nifty advanced 26.70 points or 0.15 per cent to 18,295.10.

Asian Paints was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rallying around 6 per cent, followed by ICICI Bank, Sun Pharma, Nestle India, Dr Reddy’s and TCS.

On the other hand, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finance, Tech Mahindra and IndusInd Bank were among the laggards.

In the previous session, the 30-share index ended 383.21 points or 0.63 per cent higher at 61,350.26, while Nifty surged 143 points or 0.79 per cent to 18,268.40.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital market, as they offloaded shares worth Rs 2,368.66 crore on Tuesday, as per exchange data.

High input costs have adversely impacted margins and profitability of select consumer and manufacturing companies despite steady volume and sales growth, said Binod Modi Head-Strategy at Reliance Securities.

This essentially raises concerns about sustainability of earnings rebound in subsequent quarters, which has weighed on sentiments recently, he noted.

However, “despite that overall performance so far has been good with sharp growth in revenue aiding double digit growth in earnings,” he said, adding “in our view, the market may remain volatile with downward bias in the near term and investors will track the pricing power of industries”.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul were trading with losses in mid-session deals.

Stock exchanges in the US ended on a positive note in the overnight session.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude fell 0.47 per cent to USD 85.25 per barrel.