The benchmark stock index opened higher on Thursday, led by banks and financial stocks. Major Asian hubs rose in early trade, while US stocks edged higher overnight trade.

At 9:16 am, the BSE Sensex was up 273.92 points, or 0.45%, at 60,620.89. The Nifty50 was trading at 18,086, up 82.25 points or 0.46%.

There are two broad market trends right now, said V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services (NSE 1.68%). First, global markets have softened again due to inflation concerns, with the Fed’s final interest rate generally expected to be significantly higher than 4%. This will weigh on global markets.

Second, India’s performance is strong and sustained. This is supported by a strong economy and good earnings visibility. Vijaykumar added that the S&P 500 (down 18% YTD) and Nifty (up 3.6% YTD) sent a clear message.
Vijaykumar said yesterday’s strong market performance proved the success of the “buys on dips” strategy.

Among Sensex shares, Maruti rose 1.89% to Rs 9,124.95. ICICI Bank, NTPC, Kotak Mahindra Bank and M&M rose 1.81%, 1.49%, 1.17% and 1.07%, respectively. L&T, SBI and HDFC gained 0.95%, 0.81% and 0.75% respectively.

Among sectors, the Nifty PSU Bank index soared 1.09%, while the Nifty Auto gained 0.92%. The Nifty Midcap50 and Smallcap50 gained 0.7% and 0.81%, respectively.

The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major world currencies, was up 0.05% at 109.71.

US markets ended higher on Wednesday, with the S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq up 0.34%, 0.1% and 0.74%, respectively.