Opening Bell – Sensex opens above 31300, Nifty opens close to 9700

At 9:15 am the BSE Sensex opened at 31316 up by 45 points, while the Nifty50 opened up by 18 points at 9682 mark.

 
Tata Steel is the top Nifty gainer and ONGC is the top Nifty loser in the morning hours. Tata Steel is trading at Rs 502 per share up by 2.27% whereas ONGC is trading at Rs 170.70 per share, down by 0.78%.
 
There are 930 advances, 459 declines and 513 unchanged stocks on NSE reflecting some positive bias floating in the market.
 
The rupee opened at 64.40 per US dollar lower by 7 paise on Thursday. The rupee on Wednesday recovered from early lows to close 10 paise up at nearly three-week high of 64.33 against the dollar after the Reserve Bank lowered its inflation forecast while keeping the policy rates unchanged.
 
The Nifty50 index has respected the support level of 9,630 and now it needs to hold above the level of 9,680 if it were to extend its upward rally towards the levels of 9,710 and 9,735. On the downside, the level of 9,620-9,630, may continue to act as a strong support level and if this support is breached, it is likely to slide down to the level of 9,570.
 
The US stocks showed a lack of direction over the course of the trading session on Wednesday but managed to end the day with modest gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 37 points to close at 21,174. The S&P 500 index rose 4 points to close at 2,433. The Nasdaq Composite index edge up 22 points to close at 6,297.
 
Most of the Asian shares edge lower in early trade on Thursday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 has been trading unchanged; Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has slipped 23 points, while China’s Shanghai Composite has shed 4 points.