Opening Bell: Nifty above 16, 300, Sensex adds around 400 points; IT, auto stocks shine

Taking cues from positive Asian markets and overnight gains in the US market, the Indian market opened on a strong note on Friday. The benchmarks opened higher by more than half per cent. The broader Nifty50 and Sensex gained around 0.80% each as the former opened at 16,296.60 and the latter at 54,671.50. Soon the indices further surged as Nifty50 surpassed 1,300-level.  

Following benchmarks, Nifty midcap and small too gained over one per cent as India VIX calamed down around 22-mark.  

Sectorally, Nifty IT and Auto were top gainers as all other indices too turned green  

In the pre-open, the Sensex opened higher by 250 points as 25 shares advanced and 5 stocks declined on the 30-share index.  

Earlier, all major Asian indices, including SGX Nifty, was trading higher in the early trade on Friday.  

SGX Nifty Futures was trading higher by nearly 150 points on the Singaporean exchange in the early trade on Friday. Besides, Japanese Nikkei 225, Hang Seng Index at the Hong Kong Exchange and Chinese Shanghai Composite were trading higher by 0.67%, 3.09% and 0.70% around 8.15 am on Friday.  

On Thursday, the US markets too ended with gains. Dow Jonse closed higher by 1.6%, Nasdaq was up by 2.6% and S&P 500 rose nearly 2% on Thursday's closing.