MUMBAI: Benchmark equity indices Sensex and Nifty rose in early trade on Thursday, driven by buying in blue-chip stock Reliance Industries and foreign fund inflows.
The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 245.43 points, or 0.34 per cent, to 73,491.46 in morning trade.
The 50-share NSE Nifty rose 62.55 points, or 0.28 per cent, to 22,761.40.
Adani Ports was the biggest gainer among Sensex constituents, rising 3 per cent after reporting an 18 per cent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 3,682.44 crore for the quarter ended September.
Power Grid, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Titan, Reliance Industries, NTPC, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Hindustan Unilever, ITC, and State Bank of India also traded in positive territory.
Trent, Maruti Suzuki India, Asian Paints, Bajaj Finserv, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Steel, HDFC Bank, Eternal and UltraTech Cement were among the laggards.
Shares of Jio Platforms Ltd extended gains for the second straight session after making a blockbuster debut on the exchanges a day earlier.
The stock of the company jumped over 5 per cent to Rs 1,490, taking the market capitalisation to Rs 13,72,145.59 crore.
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 871.83 crore on Wednesday, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were also the net buyers of shares worth Rs 643.35 crore, according to the exchange data.
"Buying by both foreign and domestic institutional investors provided broad-based institutional support to the market," said Sachin Gupta, VP of Technical Research at Choice Broking.
Meanwhile, the US Federal Reserve on Wednesday kept its key rate unchanged Wednesday at about 3.9 per cent despite stubbornly high inflation, while providing little hint about the central bank's next moves.
"The Fed holding rates as expected is mildly positive for equity markets, globally. However, from the Indian perspective, the headwinds continue to be strong.
"The 10-year US bond yield continues to hover around 5 per cent, and there are no signs of easing of the crude prices," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Ltd.
He said reports that the chip shortage issue will persist up to 2030 have brought interest back into the chip stocks and AI trade in South Korea and Taiwan. This means that foreign money will continue to chase AI and AI- related stocks, ignoring India.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, fell 1.03 per cent to USD 114.13 per barrel.
"With crude remaining elevated for long, trade and current account deficits will widen, leading to depreciation of the rupee and the consequent imported inflation. This will further aggravate the high inflation, which will continue rising in the context of the hugely deficient monsoon this year," Vijayakumar added.
Asian markets were mixed, with South Korea's Kospi falling 3 per cent, Shanghai's SSE Composite index declined 1 per cent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index and Japan's Nikkei 225 benchmark were flat.
US equity markets ended higher in overnight deals on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, the 30-share BSE Sensex declined 352.64 points to settle at 73,246.03, while the NSE Nifty50 dropped 50.90 points to close at 22,698.85.