Sensex rises 99 points to 61,249 in opening session; Nifty gains 35 points to 18,247

Equity benchmark Sensex climbed nearly 100 points in opening trade on Thursday, tracking gains in index-heavyweights Infosys, TCS and Maruti.

Encouraging earnings reports by software majors TCS and Infosys supported the domestic equities. However, weak macroeconomic data restricted the appreciating bias to some extent, traders said.

The BSE index, while battling heavy volatility in early trade, was trading 99.04 points or 0.16 per cent higher at 61,249.08. Likewise, the Nifty advanced 35.50 points or 0.19 per cent to 18,247.85.

PowerGrid was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising over 2 per cent, followed by Tata Steel, TCS, Infosys, Maruti and Sun Pharma.

On the other hand, Wipro, HDFC Bank, M&M, and ICICI Bank were among the laggards.

In the previous session, the 30-share Sensex settled 533.15 points or 0.88 per cent higher at 61,150.04. Similarly, the NSE benchmark Nifty climbed 156.60 points or 0.87 per cent to end at 18,212.35.

The country's largest software exporter TCS on Wednesday reported a 12.2 per cent jump in December quarter net profit at ₹9,769 crore, while Infosys registered a near 12 per cent rise in its net profit at ₹5,809 crore.

Meanwhile, Wipro posted a consolidated net profit of ₹2,969 crore for the December 2021 quarter, almost flat compared to the year-ago period.

On the domestic macroeconomic front, the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) grew by 1.4 per cent in November, as most components like manufacturing, electricity, mining, primary goods, and consumer durables witnessed a slowdown.

Meanwhile, rising prices of essential kitchen items pushed the retail inflation to a six-month high of 5.59 per cent in December, close to the Reserve Bank's upper tolerance limit of 6 per cent.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shanghai, Tokyo and Seoul were trading with losses in mid-session deals, while Hong Kong was in the positive territory.

Stock exchanges in the US ended with gains in the overnight session.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude fell 0.21 per cent to USD 84.89 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital market, as they sold shares worth ₹1,001.57 crore on Wednesday, according to stock exchange data.