Sensex rises 270 pts, Nifty at 24,150; Q1 earnings in focus 

The Indian stock market opened higher on Thursday amid positive global cues. Sensex rose 273 points to 77,458 and Nifty gained 82 pts to 24,146 today amid the ongoing earnings season. Among Sensex constituents, HCL Tech, Maruti, M&M, Tech Mahindra, Infosys and Trent were the top gainers today, rising up to 2.12%. 

Top Sensex losers were Axis Bank, Adani Ports, Bajaj Finserv and Eternal, falling up to 0.65%. 

VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments said, "Financials-both banks and NBFCs- are likely to report good set of numbers aided by robust credit growth now running at 18%. Automobiles is a sector to watch closely since the growth numbers for Q1 would be impressive and the sector continues to exhibit momentum, aided by GST cuts and easy availability of finance. With no major changes in crude prices and global markets holding steady, our market is likely to trade in a narrow band with a positive bias. With many companies reporting their Q1 results in the coming days, the market is likely to respond to the results."

Shrikant Chouhan, Head Equity Research, Kotak Securities said, "From a technical perspective on the upside, 24,260/77,700 remains the immediate resistance zone. A sustained move above this level could extend the recovery towards 24,300–24,350/77,800–78,000. Conversely, 24,000/77,000 continues to serve as the key support. A decisive breach below this level would negate the near-term positive bias and could accelerate profit booking towards the 50-day Simple Moving Average (SMA), placed around 23,800/76,300."

Previous session 

Sensex rose 130 points to 77,185 and Nifty gained 26 pts to 24,078 today. Among Sensex constituents, Eternal, UltraTech Cements, SBI, Bajaj Finance, IndiGo and Asian Paints  were the top gainers today, rising up to 3.08%.