New Delhi, October 10(HS): Indian equities witnessed a positive trend in early trade on Friday, reversing initial weakness as strong buying lifted key benchmarks. The session opened subdued, but investor appetite quickly turned the tide, propelling both the Sensex and Nifty higher by mid-morning.

By 10:00 a.m., the BSE Sensex was up 292.32 points, or 0.36%, trading at 82,464.42, while the NSE Nifty gained 86.95 points, or 0.34%, to 25,267.75. This emerged after a cautious start, with the Sensex opening 96.65 points lower at 82,075.45 and the Nifty beginning the day down 14.15 points at 25,167.65. Prompt buying drove the Sensex to an intraday high of 82,551.66 and lifted the Nifty beyond 25,285 before light profit-taking trimmed gains.

Key Movers

Leading gainers included ONGC, Axis Bank, Trent Ltd, State Bank of India and SBI Life Insurance, advancing between 0.89% and 1.26%. Conversely, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Hindalco Industries, Tata Consultancy Services and Tech Mahindra saw declines ranging from 0.37% to 1.46%.

Market Breadth

Across the BSE, out of 2,088 actively traded stocks, 1,554 were in positive territory, while 534 were down. Within Sensex components, 23 of the 30 stocks were trading higher, with 7 in the red. On the Nifty index, 38 of 50 constituents were advancing, while 12 were declining.

Previous Session Recap

On Thursday, the Sensex had closed at 82,172.10, up 398.44 points or 0.49%, and the Nifty ended 135.65 points higher at 25,181.80, marking a 0.54% gain.

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar