Mumbai: The BSE Sensex advanced nearly 54 points in opening trade on Wednesday, spurred by a fresh spell of buying in select blue-chip stocks like Infosys, TCS and Sun Pharma amid mixed global cues.
Sustained buying by domestic institutional investors (DIIs) and short-covering of outstanding positions by speculators ahead of tomorrow's June series expiry in the derivatives segment also supported the uptrend, brokers said.
The 30-share index was trading higher by 53.85 points, or 0.15 per cent, at 35,543.89. IT, teck, healthcare and consumer durables indices were in the green, with gains of up to 0.86 per cent.
The NSE Nifty added 16.35 points, or 0.15 per cent, at 10,785.50. Major gainers were TCS, Infosys, Sun Pharma, M&M, RIL, Wipro, HDFC Bank, Asian Paints, Kotak Bank, HDFC Ltd, Tata Motors and Yes Bank, rising by up to 1.62 per cent.
DIIs bought shares Rs 238.05 crore, while foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 538.40 crore yesterday, as per provisional data. At other Asian markets, Singapore was up 0.25 per cent and Taiwan 0.12 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei shed 0.33 per cent in their early deals. Hong Kong's Hang Seng too fell 0.41 per cent. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.12 per cent higher yesterday.
