Sensex and Nifty continued their upward movement in early trade

Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty continued their upward movement in early trade on Thursday, aided by sustained buying by foreign institutional investors and value-buying in bellwether stocks.

Indices are expected to stay in the positive territory after the US Federal Reserve's move on interest rate hike came in on expected lines, traders said.

The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 188.56 points or 0.28 per cent to 66,895.76. The broader NSE Nifty advanced 69.35 points or 0.35 per cent to 19,847.65.

From the Sensex pack, Bajaj Finserv rose 1.62 per cent and Bharti Airtel climbed 1.31 per cent. Asian Paints, Tata Motors, Sun Pharma and Infosys were the other major gainers.

From the 30-share club, M&M, Tech Mahindra, NTPC and Axis Bank were among the laggards.

According to V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, the benchmark indices are expected to stay in positive territory after the US Federal Reserve's move on interest rate hike.

He further noted that the quarterly results of domestic companies are coming on expected lines with banks showing robust performance and IT companies coming up with weak guidance.

"Early results from FMCG companies indicate pressure on volume growth while auto results are broadly good with improving performance by Tata Motors and Bajaj Auto.

"Nifty has rallied around 5 per cent in the last one month mainly on FII buying and sustaining strong inflows into domestic mutual funds. Institutional support is likely to continue," he added.

Snapping its three-session losing run on Wednesday, the 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 351.49 points or 0.53 per cent to settle at 66,707.20. The broader NSE Nifty advanced 97.70 points or 0.50 per cent to end at 19,778.30.

In Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei was up 0.46 per cent and Chinese index Shenzhen was up 0.34 per cent.

European markets finished broadly lower on Wednesday with CAC 40 of France closing 1.35 per cent down and Germany's DAX ending 0.49 lower. The UK's FTSE 100 slipped 0.19 per cent.

In the US market S&P 500 closed 0.02 per cent lower, and Dow Jones 0.23 per cent higher.

Meanwhile, global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 1.03 per cent higher at USD 83.77 a barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net buyers in the capital markets on Wednesday as they bought shares worth Rs 922.84 crore, according to exchange data.