Benchmark equity market indices Sensex and Nifty opened marginally higher on Thursday taking cues from their Asian peers and falling crude oil prices in the international market. Around 9.50 AM, BSE S&P Sensex jumped 234 points or 0.57 per cent to trade at 41, 350 points, while broader Nifty 50 index was ruling 54 points or 0.45 per cent higher at 12,161 points. Axis Bank, LT, Infosys, Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) and ONGC were the top gainers on the Sensex pack. Conversely, Asian Paints, Hindustan Uniliver, Tech Mahindra and Power Grid were among the laggards on the index.
Among the Nifty sectoral indices, barring Nifty IT and Nifty Media, all the other sectoral indices were trading in green. Nifty Bank index jumped 185 points to trade at 30,885 points led by gains in Axis Bank, Federal Bank, Bank of Baroda and State Bank of India. On the other hand, Nifty FMCG index was trading lower dragged by Emami, Procter and gamble Hygiene and Health care, Hindustan Uniliver. In the broader markets, S&P BSE MidCap index was trading 99 points or 0.64 per cent higher at 15,635 points while S&P BSE SmallCap indexwas ruling at 14,699 points, up 67 points or 0.46 per cent.
Axis Bank on Wednesday reported a 4.6 per cent year-on-year increase in its net profit to Rs 1,757 crore for the December quarter. The net interest income (NII) of the bank grew 15 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to Rs 6,453 crore during quarter, from Rs 5,604 crore last year. The operating profit for the quarter was Rs 5,743 crore, up 4 per cent Y-o-Y from Rs 5,525 crore.
Brent crude futures were down $1.05, or 1.7 per cent, to $62.16 a barrel, and earlier dropped to the lowest since December 4, after falling 2.1 per cent in the previous session. US West Texas Intermediate futures fell 95 cents, or 1.7 per cent, to $55.78 a barrel after earlier falling to the lowest since December, as per the Reuters news report.