Sensex rises 100 points in early trade; Nifty tops 18,200

Equity benchmark Sensex climbed nearly 100 points in opening trade on January 13, 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% higher at 61,249.08. Likewise, the Nifty advanced 35.50 points or 0.19% to 18,247.85.

PowerGrid was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising over 2%, 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% higher at 61,150.04. Similarly, the NSE benchmark Nifty climbed 156.60 points or 0.87% to end at 18,212.35.

The country’s largest software exporter TCS on January 12 reported a 12.2% jump in December quarter net profit at ₹9,769 crore, while Infosys registered a near 12% 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% 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% in December, close to the Reserve Bank’s upper tolerance limit of 6%.

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 U.S. ended with gains in the overnight session.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude fell 0.21% to $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 January 12, according to stock exchange data.