Opening Bell: Nifty near 17,200, Sensex gains over 400 points; FMCG, metal stocks shine

Taking cues from Asian market, the domestic equity markets opened on a positive note on Thursday. Benchmark indices gained more than half per cent on Thursday. The broader Nifty 50 opened near 17, 200 and the Sensex gained over 400 points in the opening trade. The two indices started fresh session at 17,189.50 and 57,296.31 respectively. All sectors turned green with maximum buying interest seen in FMCG, healthcare and metal. 

In the pre-open, the Sensex scaled nearly 500 points as 24 stocks advanced, 5 declined and one remained neutral on the 30-share index.    

"A clear trend in markets now, in developed markets as well as in India, is the preference for value stocks over high-priced growth stocks. This is partly a reflection of risk aversion among investors in the present context of mounting challenges posed by the expected aggressive tightening by the Fed and the uncertainties arising from the Ukraine war that is getting prolonged," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services. 

He said dollar index at 103 indicates flight to safety and this implies that FPIs will continue to sell in this market. "Sell on rallies is likely to be the texture of this market in the near term. Long-term investors who can ignore short-term gyrations in the market can buy high quality stocks in banking and IT which are depressed due to FPI selling," the expert added.  

Earlier, SGX Nifty Futures was trading higher by 30 points on the Singaporean exchange, minutes before the market opening.  

Asian markets were off to a good start too as Japanese Nikkei 225 was up 0.61%, Hang Seng Index at the Hong Kong Exchange rose 0.9% and Chinese Shanghai Composite 0.6% in the early trade on Thursday.