After a sharp decline in the previous trading session, Indian equity markets opened with a modest recovery on Wednesday. The Sensex and Nifty started nearly flat with marginal gains, while buying in IT, PSU banks and oil and gas stocks provided support during early trading.
At around 9:25 am, the BSE Sensex was trading 172.39 points, or 0.24%, higher at 72,701.46. The NSE Nifty gained 7.70 points and was at around 22,723.90.
Buying was also seen in midcap and smallcap stocks, with both indices gaining up to around 1%. The market's overall direction remained influenced by global cues, foreign investor activity and the recent selling pressure.
The Nifty IT and Nifty PSU Bank indices were among the best-performing sectors in early trade. The Nifty IT index gained around 1.28% to reach 28,023.45, while the Nifty PSU Bank index rose 1.29% to 8,075.70 amid buying in government bank stocks.
The realty index gained 0.93%, the energy index rose 0.87%, the PSE index advanced 0.71% and the infrastructure index increased around 0.46%.
Most sectors traded in positive territory, while pharma stocks remained under pressure. The Nifty Pharma index was down around 0.17% in early trade.
Among Nifty 50 stocks, Tech Mahindra was one of the leading gainers in early trading. The company's shares rose around 2.55% to ₹1,549.
TCS gained 2.41%, HCL Tech rose 1.96%, IndiGo advanced 1.46%, Trent gained 1.17% and ICICI Bank rose 1.10%.
Reliance Industries, Jio Finance and UltraTech Cement also traded higher in early trading. Buying in IT stocks supported the benchmark indices following the sector's recent weakness.
Several major stocks traded lower in early trading. Max Healthcare fell around 4.73%, making it one of the major losers. Apollo Hospitals declined 3.98%, while Dr. Reddy's Laboratories fell 2.12%.
Adani Ports declined around 2.04%, HDFC Life fell 1.71% and SBI Life was down 1.68%. HDFC Bank and Sun Pharma also traded more than 1% lower.
