Opening Bell: Nifty, Sensex open higher ahead of RBI policy announcement; tech shares lead the rally

The Indian markets started the Wednesday's session on a positive note ahead of the announcements of policy decisions by the Reserve Bank of India's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) today.

After closing strongly on Tuesday, domestic equity benchmarks Nifty and the Sensex opened higher on Wednesday as hinted by the SGX Nifty in the early morning trade.

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The two indices gained nearly 1 per cent each in the opening trade as the Nifty opened at 17,315.25 and the Sensex 58,158.56

RIL, Infosys, IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel, ONGC, Wipro, while Divis Lab and Titan, Dr Reddy, NTPC were top drags.

The 12-share Nifty Bank also opened above 37,000-marks as the banking index surged over 1 per cent.

In the pre-open session, the Sensex surged over 400 points led by Bajaj Auto, IndusInd Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Steel, while 45 shares advancing and 5 declining on the Nifty index.

Earlier, Mohit Nigam, Head - PMS, Hem Securities, said that Indian benchmark Indices are expected to open on a positive note as suggested by trends on the SGX Nifty.

"All the major global markets closed in green yesterday. The broader markets also joined the bulls' party as the Nifty Midcap 100 and Smallcap 100 indices climbed over 1 percent each as global fears of omicron on economic recovery diminish," said Nigam, adding that Investors will keep a close eye on today’s RBI MPC meeting which can decide the next leg of movement in the market.

On the technical front, the key resistance levels for the Nifty50 are 17500 and on the downside 16900 can act as strong support. Key resistance and support levels for the Bank Nifty are 37300 and 35500, respectively.

In the Asian markets, all indices were trading in the green in early morning trade. Nikkei 225 was trading with 1.10% gain, Hang Seng Index at the Hong Kong Exchange was up 106 points and Chinese Shanghai Composite was trading higher by 0.22% around 7.30 am.

Similarly, the US markets closed higher for the second consecutive day after the WHO said the Omicron Covid variant is not as dangerous as the Delta variant. Dow Jones closed with 1.40% or 492 points gain to 35,719, Nasdaq Composite added 461.76 points to 15686.92, S&P 500 settled with 95.08% or 2.07% to 4,686.75 and Russel 2,000 closed 50 points or 2.28% higher to 2,253.79 in Tuesday's closing.