Sensex, Nifty start on a positive note; Axis Bank, Airtel top gainers

NEW DELHI: Benchmark indices opened on a positive note on Wednesday, tracking an overnight rally in US market, ahead of scheduled discussion on GST legislative bills in Lok Sabha later in the day and the expiry of March series futures and options contracts on Thursday.

At 9.20 am, the BSE Sensex was trading 75 points, or 0.26 per cent, higher at 29,479

SBI rose 0.69 per cent to Rs 284.10 on BSE. NTPC, Tata Steel, Larsen & Toubro and Bharti Airtel gained to 1.07 per cent. Bharti advanced after the operator sold 10.3 per cent of its tower arm to a consortium of KKR and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) for about Rs 6,200 crore.

The NSE barometer advanced 27.90 points, or 0.31 per cent, to 9,128.70. India VIX declined 3 percentage points to 12.11.

Till two days before the expiry, the market-wide rollovers stood at 43 per cent, which were higher than average rollovers of 42 per cent seen during the comparable period of last three series, data showed. Nifty futures rollover at 46 per cent on the D-2 was a bit higher, compared with the average rollovers of 41 per cent in the last three series.

Midcap and Smallcap indices rose up to 0.3 per cent.

Asian markets, meanwhile, were trading positive, tracking US Dow Jones and S&P500 indices, which climbed 0.73 per cent each in overnight trade after data showed US consumer confidence climbed to a more than 16-year high.

While DIIs bought Rs 356 crore worth of domestic shares on Tuesday, FPIs were net buyers to the tune of Rs 6,415.38 crore. The institutional category has pumped in over Rs 23,000 crore to domestic equities so far this month, thanks to weak dollar overseas .

The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 150.52 points, or 0.73 per cent, to settle at 20,701 on Wednesday. The S&P500 added 16.98 points, or 0.73 per cent, to 2,358. The Nasdaq Composite rose 34.77 points, or 0.6 per cent, to 5,875.