FIRST TRADE: Sensex adds 600 points, Nifty climbs to 23,345; HDFC Life up 7%

Indian equities in Thursday's session opened higher after a softer US core inflation print bolstered bets of rate cuts by the Federal Reserve this year. At the open, Sensex gained 595.42 points or 0.78 per cent to 77,319.5, while the Nifty was up 0.57 per cent or 132 points at 23,345.2.

Broader markets also showed strength, with both the Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indices outperforming the headline indices, with gains of over 1 per cent.

Sectorally, there were broad-based gains, with only the FMCG and Pharma indices trading with marginal losses, while the PSU Bank index outlied other indices with gains of 2.6 per cent at the last count.

Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services said, "Macro indicators from the US suggest that as the swearing-in of Mr. Trump nears, the Trump trade has peaked. The decline in US bond yields and the dollar index are indications of this. This downshift in the dollar index and bond yields has been assisted by the lower-than-expected CPI inflation in the US, again igniting hopes of more rate cuts by the Fed this year."

Hope of an end to the conflict in Gaza is another major relief. This global backdrop is positive for the market, he added.

Stocks in action

HDFC Life: Shares of the private insurer rallied up to 10 per cent in intraday trade after the company's October-December results came in better-than-expectations.

RVNL: Shares of the railway PSU were last up as much as 7 per cent after the company received an acceptance order from BSNL.

L&T Technology: Despite the company's earnings came in below expectations, the stock was last up around 8 per cent.

Technical outlook

Anand James, Chief Market Strategist, Geojit Financial Services said, "Though we could not make much headway yesterday, a strong close retains the positive bias that we had placed our bets on, in the last couple of days. Towards this end, the 23550-640 objectives continue to be in play, but so does the challenge posed by 23370." Downside marker may be placed at 23195, noted James.

Asian markets

Mirroring overnight gains in the US markets, Asian markets traded with gains as the cooler core inflation data cemented hopes of interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve going forward. The key MSCI ex Japan index traded with gains of over 1 per cent at 563.7.