Sensex rises 500 points tracking positive cues from global peers; Nifty above 22,100

From the stocks, , , , , and were the top gainers, rising over 1% each in early trade. On the other hand, Infosys, HCL Tech, TCS, and HDFC Bank opened in the red.

Auto rose 0.9%, led by Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto, and Tata Motors. Nifty FMCG, Financials, Media, Metal, Consumer Durables, and Oil and Gas also opened higher. In the broader market, Nifty Mid and Smallcap100 surged over 0.2%.

Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) gained 5% on despite the company's Q4 earnings missing street expectations on lower refining margins. The rise comes as Citi maintained a 'Buy' call on the stock despite below-estimate earnings.

Shares of Tata Motors, Bank of Baroda and Cipla will be in focus as the companies will announce their fourth quarter results today.

Experts Take
"FIIs have turned sustained sellers and DIIs have turned sustained buyers in all trading days of this month, so far, with cumulative FII selling of Rs 22858 crores and cumulative DII buying of Rs 16700 crores. An important point to understand is that FIIs are selling not because of concerns relating to elections but because India is underperforming while China and Hong Kong are outperforming," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

"So long as this ‘Sell India, Buy China’ trade sustains FII selling will weigh on the markets. The situation can change dramatically when clarity emerges on the election outcome," Vijayakumar added.

Deven Mehata, Research Analyst at Choice Broking, said, "Nifty can find support at 21,900 followed by 21,800 and 21,750. On the higher side, 22,100 can be an immediate resistance, followed by 22,150 and 22,200."

Global Markets
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.66% and was on course for a nearly 1% gain for the week, its third straight week of gains. Japan's Nikkei was 1.6% higher.

China stocks also gained, with blue-chip shares 0.14% higher, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 1.4%, having touched an eight month high in early trading.

Meanwhile, Wall Street gained overnight as a higher-than-expected rise in U.S. weekly jobless claims fuelled hopes of interest rate cuts.

FII/DII Tracker
FIIs sold shares worth Rs 6,994.86 crore. DIIs pumped in Rs 5,642.53 crore worth of stocks on May 9.

Crude Oil
Oil prices rose on Friday, continuing an upward trend on the signs of an improving economy in China and as negotiations to halt hostilities in the stand-off between Israel and Hamas yielded no results.

Brent futures rose 48 cents, or 0.57%, to $84.36 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude grew 52 cents, or 0.52%, to $79.78.

Currency Watch
The Indian rupee rose 1 paisa to 83.47 against the US dollar in early trade. The dollar index, which tracks the movement of the greenback against a basket of six major world currencies, rose 0.07% to 105.3 level.

(With inputs from agencies)
(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)