FIRST TRADE: Indices open in the green. Nifty above 18,800; Shriram Finance, Piramal Ent jump 10% each

Stock market today: The benchmark indices opened in the green on Wednesday. After opening flat with a positive bias, the indices extended gains later. At the time of writing this news, the BSE Sensex traded at 63,572, up 244 points, or 0.39 per cent while the NSE's Nifty traded at 18,873 levels, up 56 points. On the 30-share pack Sensex, Power Grid (up nearly 1.5 per cent) was the top gainer, followed by Wipro and UltraTech Cement. On the flip side, Sun Pharma was the biggest loser on the index. 

“With most of the Asian markets trading in red, domestic equities are likely to see a weak start in early Wednesday trades. All eyes will be on the US Federal Reserve Chairman's testimony before the US Congress later today. While the Fed has indicated that it is not yet done with its interest rate hike for the year, other negatives like falling crude oil prices in view of a sluggish demand from China and other economies could make investors jittery going ahead. However, going by the technical indicators, both Nifty and Bank Nifty are likely to trade with positive bias as long as they stay above their biggest support levels at 18651 and 43300, respectively," said Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd.

BUZZING STOCKS

Shriram Finance and Piramal Enterprises hogged the limelight in the early trade. Shriram Finance scaled a fresh 52-week high of Rs 1,764.45 apiece amid reports that Piramal Enterprises has sold its entire 8.34 per cent stake in Shriram Finance via a block deal. The floor price of the block deal, as per Zee Business, was fixed at Rs 1483 apiece, which was a 5 per cent discount on the last closing price. Piramal Enterprises zoomed over 12 per cent and was trading around Rs 943.45 levels.

BROADER MARKET INDICES

In the broader market, both the S&P BSE MidCap and S&P BSE SmallCap indices hit their lifetime peaks today.