Indian equity benchmarks began the trade on a positive note on Wednesday amid buying in banking counters and strong global cues. Markets are trading higher in early deals with gains of around 0.20%. Sensex and Nifty were trading above their physiological levels of 61,500 and 18,250, respectively. Global cues remained supportive with most of the Asian peers trading higher, following the broadly positive cues from US markets overnight, as traders continued to express optimism about the US Fed slowing the pace of its interest rate hikes despite some hawkish comments from the Fed officials.

Also Read | Stocks to watch on Friday, November 18, 2022

Continuing its previous day’s rally, the BSE Sensex jumped 122.45 points or 0.20% to 61,529.77 in early trade. The NSE Nifty gained 33.20 points or 0.18% to 18,277.40.

Top gainers from the Sensex pack were Bajaj Finance, State Bank of India, Titan, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Dr. Reddy’s, Wipro, Bajaj Finserv, NTPC, Axis Bank, Maruti Suzuki, HDFC, and HDFC Bank.

Also Read | Laid off Meta, Twitter, Amazon employees can get $100,000 from this company: All you need to know

Among the laggards were TCS, Larsen & Toubro, ITC, UltraTech Cement, Asian Paints, Hindustan Unilever, Hindustan Unilever, and Power Grid.

The rupee fell 14 paise to 81.81 against the US dollar, following a strong US dollar and sustained foreign fund outflows.

Also Read | Google-parent Alphabet plans to slash 10,000 poor performers

Asian markets are trading mostly in green with the Hang Seng surging 177.48 points, or 1.02% to 17,601.89, KOSPI adding 14.12 points, or 0.59% to 2,419.39. On the other hand, Straits Times fell 6.10 points or 0.19% to 3,253.46, and Shanghai Composite was down by 5.99 points or 0.19% to 3,082.95.

Also Read | Paytm tanks 10% amid SoftBank stake sale reports

US equity markets ended higher on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, the Sensex jumped 274.12 points or 0.45% to settle at 61,418.96. The Nifty gained 84.25 points or 0.46% to end at 18,244.20.

Brent crude, the international oil benchmark was trading 0.03% lower at USD 88.32 per barrel.

Also Read | Meta appoints Sandhya Devanathan India head to replace Ajit Mohan

According to stock exchange data, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 697.83 crore on Tuesday.