Sensex rises 276 points, Nifty breaches 10,800; Tata Motors, Vedanta, Tata Steel top gainers

The Sensex and Nifty opened higher in trade today buoyed by gains in Asia after US markets surged on strong jobs data and hopes of a positive outcome from US-China trade talks in Beijing on January 7-8.

While the Sensex opened 276 points higher at 35,971, the Nifty gained 77 points to 10,804 in early trade.

Of 30 Sensex stocks, 28 were trading in the green.

Tata Motors(2.84%), Vedanta Ltd (2.25%) and Tata Steel (2.04%) were the top Sensex gainers.

Top Sensex losers were Bajaj Auto (0.40%) and Kotak Mahindra Bank (0.14%).

On Friday, the Sensex and Nifty closed higher powered by gains in banking and metal stocks. While the Sensex closed 181 points higher at 35,695, Nifty ended 55 points in the green at 10,727 level.

YES bank was trading 1.37% higher at 192.10 level ahead of its board meeting to finalise the name of its CEO and MD on January 9 .

Meanwhile, the mid cap and small cap indices were trading 66  points and 100 points higher in early trade.

Market breadth was negative with 914 stocks trading higher compared to 1381 falling on the BSE.

"We have positive outcome from the US and China, our market is showing relatively better signs of stability due to this," said Deven Choksey, founder, KR Choksey Investment Managers.

"Markets are not expecting too much from the earnings season, we remain relatively more cautious on that front at this point of time."

Consumer durables stocks led the gains with the BSE index rising 305 points to 20,874. Banking stocks also logged gains of 255 points to 30,693 level.

Capital goods stocks also rose with the BSE index  gaining  120 points to 18,504.

On a net basis, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 157.72 crore on Friday, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net buyers to the tune of Rs 240.46  crore, provisional data available with BSE showed.

The rupee opened 32 paise higher against the dollar in trade today.

The Indian currency started the day at 69.42 per dollar compared to its Friday's close of 69.74.

Global markets

Chinese stocks firmed after the country's central bank announced an easing in policy on Friday, with 100 basis points of cuts to bank reserve requirements freeing up around $116 billion for new lending.

Chinese officials also meet their U.S. counterparts for trade negotiations starting later Monday, the first face-to-face talks of the year.

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the talks were going very well and that weakness in the Chinese economy gave Beijing a reason to work toward a deal.

Shanghai blue chips rose 0.3 percent, having already climbed over 2 percent on Friday. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan put on 1.3 percent.

Japan's Nikkei shot up 3.1 percent, helped in part by a pullback in the yen, while South Korea added 1.5 percent. 

Edited by Aseem Thapliyal