The BSE benchmark Sensex overcame initial losses to gain 35 points in early trade on Wednesday amid renewed buying in select counters following persistent buying by foreign funds over the past few days, coupled with an intra-day recovery in Asian stock markets.
The BSE benchmark Sensex resumed lower at 18,730.29 and hovered in a range between 18,823.45 and 18,725.56 before quoting at 18,779.34 at 10.15 a.m., showing a net gain of 34.78 points, or 0.19 per cent, from its last close.
The NSE’s 50-share Nifty index also moved up by 12.10 points, or 0.21 per cent, to 5,644.20 at 1015 hours.
The major gainers in early trade were DLF (up 1.23 per cent), Bharti Airtel (1.19 per cent), HDFC (1.18 per cent), Tata Steel (0.85 per cent) and Jindal Steel (0.72 per cent).
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) made net purchases of shares worth Rs. 825.52 crore yesterday as per provisional data from the stock exchanges. FIIs bought net shares worth Rs. 2,556.89 crore in the first three trading sessions of this month.
Meanwhile, Asian shares recovered from their initial losses, with the key benchmark indices in Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan up between 0.17 per cent and 0.48 per cent, while indices in China, Hong Kong and Indonesia were down between 0.17 per cent and 0.79 per cent.
