Opening movers: Markets trade in green with Sensex gaining more than 600 points and Nifty hovering above the 16,500 level

Oil & Gas stocks were in limelight due to ease in windfall tax by the government.

In the previous trading session, Indian equity benchmarks extended the rally, with gains in metals and realty lifting the indices. On the global front, US stocks settled higher as banks reported earnings that beat forecasts, giving some relief to the investors who were worried about higher inflation and a tightening Fed affecting the corporate bottom line.

On the domestic front, at the open, Sensex is up 600.66 points or 1.10% at 55,368.28, and the Nifty added 178.70 points or 1.09% at 16,519.20. Oil stocks jumped at the start of the trading session as the government eased the windfall tax on fuel shipments and crude output and sliced the gasoline export levy. ONGC, GAIL, and Reliance Industries gained up to 6.2%.

Some of the popular stocks which are likely to be in action today are HUL, Ambuja Cements, ICICI Lombard General Insurance and L&T Finance Holdings, as the companies have reported their financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2022. Wipro is likely to be in focus ahead of its earnings expected to be declared today.

Vedanta is likely to be in focus as the board has approved a second interim dividend of Rs 19.50 per equity share on the face value of Rs 1 per share for the financial year 2022-23. Meanwhile, Grasim Industries said that its board has approved a foray into the B2B e-commerce platform for the building materials segment with an investment of Rs 2,000 crore over the next 5 years. Thermax has agreed to invest around Rs 10 crore in Covacsis Technologies whereas Krsnaa Diagnostics has received an order for a supply and maintenance of a CT Scan centre from the Rajasthan government. Keep a watch on these stocks for today’s trading session.

At 10 am, the broader markets were seen trading higher with BSE Mid Cap and Small Cap indices gaining 0.71% and 0.83%, respectively. On the sectoral front, IT, metals and Oil & Gas sectors traded more than 1% up. The BSE IT index gained 1.71% pushed up by Ramco Systems, Brightcom Group and KPIT Technologies.