Opening bell: Sensex opens stronger after fed rates hike

Key indices on Thursday gained strength after the federal reserve hiked rates as widely expected.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 138.34 points at 33,274.52 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 49.40 points to 10,204.70.

About two shares advanced for every share falling on the BSE while all sectoral indices were in the green barring PSU Bank.

Among the early gainers were Reliance Industries, L&T, Tata Motors, Vedanta, ONGC, Bharti Infratel, Eicher Motors, Sun Pharma and ITC gained up to 2 per cent.

SBI, ICICI Bank, BPCL, Wipro, HPCL, NTPC, TCS, Axis Bank and Mahindra & Mahindra were under pressure.

The US dollar slipped on Thursday after the Federal Reserve did not signal a faster pace of rate hikes this year while worries about a coming announcement on tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump dented Asian shares.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.1 percent, erasing earlier gains of up to 0.7 pct, which were led by South Korea and Taiwan hitting six-week highs. Japan's Nikkei gained 0.4 percent.

Wall Street stock indexes ended the day lower, with the S&P 500 losing 0.18 percent and the Nasdaq Composite 0.26 percent.

The US Federal Reserve raised interest rates on Wednesday and forecast two more hikes for 2018 in its first policy meeting under Chairman Jerome Powell.

Given that some investors had expected it to project three more rate hikes, the guidance was perceived by some as less hawkish than anticipated, a positive factor for risk assets in general, though analysts noted the Fed was upbeat on the economy overall.

Fed policymakers notched up rate projections for 2019 and 2020 and also raised the estimated longer-term "neutral" interest rate a touch, suggesting the current tightening cycle could go on longer than previously thought.

"They also forecast three hikes next year and two more in 2020 and clearly revised up the growth forecast as well," said Norihiro Fujito, senior investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.

Bombay Stock Exchange - BSE

National Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSE)