Sensex opens on strong note, Nifty hits 10,800

The BSE benchmark Sensex on Thursday opened on a strong note. The S&P BSE Sensex opened at 35,997.29 and the Nifty50 barometer of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) started at 10,808.70.

At 10:17 AM, Sensex was at 36,052.66 mark, up by 332.45 points or 0.93 per cent while Nifty was at 10,813.05 mark, up by 85.20 or 0.79 per cent.

The Sensex hit an intraday high of 36,081.27 as it surged 364.32 points in the first few minutes of trade.

Meanwhile, Asian stocks advanced on Thursday, tracking a surge on Wall Street, after the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve suggested it may nearing an end to its three-year rate tightening cycle, boosting interest in riskier assets.

The dollar struggled and U.S. Treasury yields dipped after Jerome Powell said on Wednesday that U.S. policy rates were "just below" neutral, less than two months after saying rates were probably "a long way" from that point.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.8 per cent. The Shanghai Composite Index edged up 0.2 percent, Australian stocks gained 0.5 per cent and Japan's Nikkei climbed 0.9 per cent.

However, gains in Asia were tempered by investor jitters ahead of high-stakes trade talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Saturday on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Argentina.

Economists at ANZ pointed out that policy hawks in the Trump administration who want Washington to take a tough stance against Beijing appear to be in the ascendancy.

"They will want some concessions from China, not least of all on what they perceive is theft of intellectual property and forced technology transfer," wrote the ANZ economists.

Bombay Stock Exchange - BSE

National Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSE)