SENSEX, NIFTY50 edge higher; Trent, Kotak Bank among top gainers after quarterly business updates

The Indian equity benchmarks edged higher in opening deals on Tuesday, October 6, mirroring positive trend in global markets.

The SENSEX rose as much as 212 points and NIFTY50 index briefly moved above 22,600 led by gains in Kotak Mahindra Bank, Trent, Axis Bank, Reliance Industries, HCL Technologies and IndiGo. However, the upside was capped owing to selling pressure in HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel, Mahindra & Mahindra and State Bank of India.

As of 9:21 am, the SENSEX was up 46 points at 72,428 and NIFTY50 index was up 23 points at 22,582.

Most of the Asian markets were trading higher taking cues from record closing of tech heavy Nasdaq index in the United States.

Japan's Nikkei rose 0.22%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 0.6% and South Korea's KOSPI fell 0.45%.

Overnight, tech heavy Nasdaq index closed at record closing high led by Nvidia and Microsoft as investors focused on a dip in oil prices and looked ahead to quarterly earnings reports, news agency Reuters reported.

Nasdaq rose for a second straight session after weaker-than-expected jobs data on Friday dampened expectations for an interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve at its policy meeting later this month, the report added.

Back home, Trent was top gainer in the NIFTY50 index, the stock surged 10% to ₹2,838 after the company said that its revenue in September quarter rose 23% to ₹5,788 crore.

The company opened its 100th Zudio store taking the total store count including Westside, Zudio and other lifestyle brands to 1,342 stores.

Kotak Mahindra Bank advanced 3.5% after its net advances in September quarter rose 24.7% to ₹5.77 lakh crore and deposits rose 13.7% to ₹6.51 lakh crore.

BSE advanced 2.6% to ₹3,262 after reports suggested that 30-minute volume weighted average price (VWAP) window may return for derivatives expiry replacing the closing auction session (CAS) mechanism which was implemented last month.

Axis Bank, Hindustan Unilever, SBI Life, IndiGo, HDFC Life, Reliance Industries, JSW Steel, Hindalco and Titan also rose between 0.4% and 1.7%.

On the flip side, Apollo Hospitals, Max Healthcare, Tech Mahindra, Cipla, Infosys, ITC, Eicher Motors, ONGC and TCS were top losers in the NIFTY50 index.

10 of 15 major sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange (NSE) were trading higher led by the NIFTY Private Bank index's 1% gain. NIFTY Bank, Consumer Durables, Oil & Gas, Financial Services, and Metal indices also rose between 0.3% and 0.7%.

On the other hand, auto, IT, pharma, healthcare and realty shares were facing selling pressure.

Broader markets were also witnessing buying interest as NIFTY Midcap 100 index rose 0.4% and NIFTY Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.65%.

The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 2,153 shares were advancing while 868 were declining on the NSE.