Nifty, Sensex open positive; bank shares rise

New Delhi: The market on Thursday opened higher after reacting positively to the minutes of Federal Reserve. The Sensex traded up 125.97 points or 0.4 percent at 28131.34, and the Nifty traded up 33.05 points or 0.4 percent at 8657.10.

Shares such as Dr Reddy’s Labs, Adani Ports, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and SBI were amongst the gainers while Wipro, GAIL, Coal India and Bajaj Auto were amongst the losers in the Sensex.

The Indian rupee opened lower by nine paise at 66.85 per dollar on Thursday versus 66.76 Tuesday.

As per the market analysts, despite strong payroll data, currency markets still believe that there will be no Fed rate hike in CY16.

The dollar slipped against the yen and the euro with the dollar-yen slipping below 100 with Fed officials split on hike. Minutes of the US Federal Reserve’s latest meeting showed policymakers were in no rush to raise interest rates.

The July meeting minutes released on Wednesday showed that Fed policymakers were generally upbeat about the US economic outlook and labor market.

But they also said they wanted to leave their policy options open as any slowdown in hiring would argue against near-term monetary tightening.

Market participants interpreted the minutes as moderately positive for risk-taking appetite, with the Fed remaining divided on the timing of the next rate hike.

Crude prices remained steady as investors are worried that Saudi Arabia was cranking output to record highs even as OPEC talked of ways to ease a global glut.

Gold prices rise above USD 1350 an ounce following weakness in US dollar. (ANI)