The Indian equity benchmarks edged higher in opening deals on Wednesday, a day ahead of monthly expiry of May futures and option contracts.
The Sensex rose as much as 264 points to hit an intraday high of 50,637.53 and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday high of 15,258.60.As of 9:23 am, the Sensex was up 75 points at 50,712 and Nifty advanced 13 points to 15,211.Asian shares rose on Wednesday while the US dollar stood near its lowest levels this year after US Federal Reserve officials reaffirmed a dovish monetary policy stance, providing yet more assurance to investors worried about the inflation outlook.Seven of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty Media index's nearly 2 per cent gain.
Auto, pharma and realty indices were also trading higher.On the other hand, Nifty Metal, Bank, PSU Bank and Private Bank indices were among the losers.Mid- and small-cap shares were trading in a mixed note as Nifty Midcap 100 index was trading flat while Nifty Smallcap 100 index rose 0.6 per cent.Titan, UPL, Tata Motors, Cipla, SBI Life, Sun Pharma, Grasim Industries, Larsen - Toubro, Mahindra - Mahindra, Bajaj Finserv and Hindustan Unilever were among the top Nifty gainers.On the flipside, JSW Steel, Tata Steel, Power Grid, Hindalco, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HCL Technologies, Adani Ports and NTPC were among the losers.The overall market breadth was positive as 1,591 shares were advancing while 757 were declining on the BSE.