FIRST TRADE: Equity benchmarks snap 5 days of losses; Nifty up 0.4% at 25,118, Sensex gains 400 pts

Indian equities amid a buoyant global market after the record close in the US markets in the previous session opened higher. At the start, Nifty gained 103.3 points or 0.41% at 25,117.9, while Sensex was up 0.49 per cent or 398.9 points at 82,087.35 points.

Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services said, "Globally stock markets have been resilient despite the escalating tensions in the Middle East. A big positive for equity markets is the strong US economy where the September non-farm job numbers have come surprisingly robust at 2.54 lakhs."

The combination of a strong economy and declining inflation in the mother market of the US is a big positive, he added.

The sharp correction over the past session is primarily owed to aggressive FII selling and primarily largecaps like RIL, HDFC bank and ICICI bank which are major holdings in the AUM of FIIs bore the brunt of the FII onslaught. This correction is an opportunity for long-term investors since the valuations of these stocks are fair and prospects look good.

Meanwhile, Asian markets showed resilience led by the Japan's Nikkei up over 2 per cent, followed by Hang Seng's gain of over 1 per cent. Meanwhile, MSCI Asia ex Japan traded 0.37 per cent higher.

Zee Business Managing Editor said that currently 2 main factors will determine trajectory of Indian equities, first being the US markets performance and the second is domestic institutional investors (DII) buying sentiment.