Sensex rebounds 245 points ahead of GST Council meet

Mumbai: The BSE Sensex recovered about 245 points in opening trade on Thursday, breaking its two-session losing streak on value-buying by investors and optimism ahead of GST Council meeting.

Buying by domestic institutional institutions (DIIs) and a firm trend on other Asian bourses, tracking overnight gains in the US markets, influenced trading sentiment.

Expectations that the GST (goods and serivces tax) Council might give some relief to some sectors by slashing the indirect tax rates at its meeting which begins on Thursday also supported the rebound, brokers said.

The 30-share barometer, which had lost 512.38 points in the previous two straight sessions, was trading higher by 244.99 points, or 0.73 per cent, to 33,463.80, with all the sectoral indices led by oil & gas, realty, PSU and metal trading in green.

On similar lines, the NSE Nifty rose 65.30 points, or 0.63 per cent, to 10,368.45.

Major gainers were Hindustan Unilever, Tata Steel, SBI, Sun Pharma, Reliance Industries, ONGC, NTPC, Dr Reddy's, Asian Paint, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Wipro, Infosys and Bharti Airtel, posting gains of up to 2.14 per cent.

Tata Motors also rose 1.82 per cent ahead of its Q2 earnings to be announced later in the day.

Among other Asian markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.96 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei rose 1.98 per cent in early trade. China's Shanghai Composite Index was up 0.05 per cent.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.03 per cent higher in Wednesday's trade.