Domestic indices rise in morning session, Sensex up over 300 pts

NEW DELHI: Domestic equity indices traded marginally higher in the morning session on Thursday. Other major Asian markets are, however, trading in the red in the early Thursday trade, said Mohit Nigam, Head - PMS at Hem Securities.

At 9.42 a.m, Sensex was at 53,334.05 points, up 307.08 points, or 0.58 per cent, whereas Nifty was at 15,871.90 points, up 72.80 points or 0.46 per cent.

Among the individual stocks, SBI, Axis Bank, Tata Motors, Tata Steel and Kotak Mahindra Bank were the top five gainers among the Nifty 50 companies, while Cipla, ONGC, Tata Consumers, Coal India, and Shree Cement the top five losers, National Stock Exchange data showed.

Domestic equity indices have been witnessing high volatility due to consistent depreciation of rupee, foreign fund outflows, prevailing inflation concerns, among others. Indian currency rupee has been consistently hitting fresh all-time lows.

"While our FX reserves have depleted by around $10bln in June, indicating that the RBI is proactively expending reserves to stem the sharp fall in the domestic currency, we still fare well in terms of import cover and other short-term debt obligations.

However, RBI is opting for other measures too such as tightening monetary policy, which may arrest the rupee weakness," said Sugandha Sachdeva, Vice President - Commodity and Currency Research at Religare Broking. The renewed rise in global crude oil prices too have a negative bearing on the market sentiments. The domestic indices declined during the majority of the sessions in June.