Indian stocks open Thursday’s trade with sizable gains, Sensex up nearly 300 pts

New Delhi: After yet another sharply volatile trade during the previous session, Indian stocks opened Thursday’s trade with sizable gains.

Indian stock markets have been buoyant for the past over one month due to various factors including a fresh infusion of investments by foreign portfolio investors in Indian markets coupled with the latest softening of the inflation rate.

At 9.18 a.m., Sensex traded at 59,380.92 points, up 295.49 points or 0.50 per cent, whereas Nifty traded at 17,684.25 points, up 79.30 points or 0.45 per cent.

Among the Nifty 50 stocks, 43 traded on a positive note with the rest 7 in the red, National Stock Exchange data showed.

Top performing stocks this morning were Bharti Airtel, SBI Life, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, and UPL, trading in a range of 0.9-1.6 per cent.

“The resilience of the Indian market even amidst global volatility can be attributed mainly to two factors: One, the strong growth momentum in the economy and two, the steady foreign fund flows even when the Dollar has been appreciating,” said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Since July, foreign portfolio investors infused over Rs 50,000 crore worth of equities in India, National Securities Depository data showed.

For the record, till early July, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) were consistently selling equities in the Indian markets for the past nine-to-ten months due to various reasons, including tightening of monetary policy in advanced economies, and rising demand for the dollar and high returns from US bonds.

Barring minor losses incurred earlier this week, Indian stocks had extended their bull run for the fifth straight week and managed to recover the entire losses made so far this year. Also, the latest softening of international crude oil prices infused buying sentiments among investors.