Opening Bell: Nifty near 16,800, Sensex gains around 500 points; IT stocks outperform

Tracking global market cues, the domestic equity market opened on a strong note on Friday. Benchmark indices Nifty50 and Sensex opened higher by around 0.8 % and 0.9% respectively as the former opened near 16,800 and the latter gained more than 400 points to start near 56,200.  

Following headline indices, Nifty midcap and small cap rose 0.6% and 0.9% respectively. 

On the sectoral front, Nifty IT outperformed gaining by more than one and half per cent as all sectoral indices comfortably sat in the green. 

In the pre-open, the Sensex gained by more than 400 points as 26 stocks advanced, three declined and one remained neutral on the 30-share index.  

Earlier, minutes before the market opening, hinting at a positive opening for the Indian market, SGX Nifty Futures was trading higher by more than 130 points on the Singaporean exchange.