The Indian benchmark indices opened on a mildly positive note, with the BSE Sensex rising by 200 points, bringing it to 80,572.68, while the NSE Nifty was at 24,684, up by 0.24%. Out of Sensex’s 30 components, 12 advanced and 18 declined, whereas out of Nifty’s fifty, 35 advanced and 16 declined.

Out of the 2666 stocks traded on the NSE, 2003 advanced, 590 declined, and 73 remained unchanged. 63 listed companies saw a new 52-week high, while 19 saw 52-week lows.

Reliance led the early trading hours, rising by 1.33% above its previous closing, with its share price at ₹1,371.90. Eternal and HDFC Life Insurance were right behind, with each trading around 1% above their previous closing.

Amongst laggards, Dr Reddy’s and Asian Paints led the list, by each seeing a dip of 0.90%. Yesterday’s gainers, Bajaj Auto and Mahindra and Mahindra, saw profit booking in today’s trading session, with the former coming down by 0.25%, and the latter by 0.53%.

Sectoral performance remains divided in the early hours of trade, with Nifty Media outperforming its peers, rising by 1.21%. Nifty Oil and Gas and Nifty Energy were both up by 0.65%, with news of crude oil and Brent Oil prices increasing due to escalated tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

Yesterday’s stellar performers, Nifty Auto and Nifty Metal, along with Nifty IT, saw slight dips of 0.5%, after investors pared some gains. In the auto pack, M&M led the drop, while in the IT list, Infosys dragged by 0.53%.

Broader markets, too, reflected cautious positive sentiments, with Nifty Midcap and Nifty Smallcap going marginally up under the range of 0.5%. The Indian volatility index, or India VIX, was down by 0.81%, at 11.20.

Amongst individual stocks, Indraprastha Gas Limited’s shares rose by 1% after the formation of a solar JV with Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam (RVUNL). Sugar companies’ stocks surged as much as 12% after restrictions on ethanol production from sugarcane juice and sugar syrup were removed by the government to push for ethanol blending in fuel. Balrampur Chini, Bajaj Hindusthan, Shree Renuka Sugars and Dhampur Sugar saw a steep rise in their share prices.

One Mobikwik Systems saw a rise of 9% after Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), a key shareholder in the payments solutions provider, exited the company via block deals, as per an exchange filing. As per information available, ADIA offloaded 16.44 lakh Mobikwik shares (2.1% equity) via a block deal worth ₹39.21 crore at an average price of ₹238.45 apiece.