Sensex Reclaims 77,000, Nifty Back Above 24,000 on FII Buying

Indian equity benchmarks opened higher Thursday, recouping a chunk of Wednesday's steep losses. The Sensex rose 496 points to 76,999 in early trade. The Nifty added 149 points, crossing back above 24,000.

The rebound followed a session where foreign institutional investors bought ₹1,962 crore worth of local equities, exchange data showed. That buying came after the Sensex had lost 1,677 points, or 2.15%, and the Nifty had slid 517 points, or 2.12%, the prior day.

Blue-chip stocks led the recovery. HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank, along with Reliance Industries and Sun Pharma, were among the top Sensex gainers. Asian Paints and Bharti Airtel also advanced. The laggards were all technology names. Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services fell; HCL Tech and Tech Mahindra dropped as well.

The sector split pointed to buying concentrated in heavyweight names, not a broad turn in risk appetite. Banks and consumer stocks absorbed the bulk of the inflow.

The geopolitical backdrop that reversed a recent recovery was the same factor driving Wednesday's selloff. The index had rallied in previous sessions as Middle East tensions eased. The latest escalation erased those gains. Crude oil futures rose 1% to $78.83 a barrel, still below the $85 level that usually raises alarms for India's current account.

V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Investments Limited, said the current oil price is not a problem for India.

Asian markets were mixed Thursday. South Korea's Kospi and Japan's Nikkei 225 rebounded. Shanghai's SSE Composite and Hong Kong's Hang Seng were lower. US markets ended mostly lower on Wednesday.

The morning session's strength in banks and consumer stocks gave the recovery a narrow base. Brent crude traded at $78.83, still well below the $100 level Vijayakumar flagged as the real crisis trigger.