Benchmark indices the Sensex and the Nifty were trading higher on April 10 afternoon, led by gains in heavyweights such as Asian Paints, Reliance Industries, and Titan.

Banking stocks, too, helped the benchmarks move higher, with Bank Nifty hitting an all-time high of 48,967.

At around noon, the Sensex was up 210.86 points, or 0.28 percent, at 74,894.56, and the Nifty 59.7 points, or 0.26 percent, higher at 22,702.5. The market breadth was in favor of gainers, as around 1,547 shares advanced, 1,612 declined and 91 were unchanged.

Broader markets, too, outperformed the benchmarks. The Nifty Midcap 100 index hit an all-time high of 50,376, while the smallcap 100  gained 0.5  percent.

The fear gauges India VIX eased 0.5 percent to 11.3.

Sectoral trends

Nifty metal and oil & gas indices were the top sectoral performers.

The Nifty metal index was led by gains in Vedanta after global brokerage firm CLSA upgraded the counter to “buy” from “underperform” and raised the target price to Rs 390 from Rs 260.

"Vedanta is well-placed to benefit from commodity upcycle, given its diversified exposure. The company has guided for group EBITDA to rise to $6-7.5 billion from $5 billion by FY25-27," it said.

Given the firming up of commodity prices, the BSE Commodities index also hit a fresh lifetime high of 7,045.02 on April 10.

Fundamental View

Prashanth Tapse, Senior Vice President of Research at Mehta Equities, expects volatility to increase due to significant US events, including the release of March US CPI numbers and the minutes of the Fed’s March FOMC meeting.

"Positive factors such as expectations of robust Q4 corporate earnings and a pre-election rally are supporting the market. Bank Nifty's inclusion in rising sectoral indices also reflects anticipation of healthy Q4 earnings from banks," he said.

Technical view

Deven Mehata, Research Analyst at Choice Broking, said 22,750 can act as an immediate resistance for the Nifty followed by 22,800 and 22,900. "On the downside, a strong support can be seen at 22,580 followed by 22,550 and 22,500," he said.

KEY NIFTY GAINERS

BPCL, COAL INDIA, KOTAK MAHINDRA BANK

Key Nifty losers

Cipla, HDFC Life, Maruti Suzuki India

Top Sensex leaders

Kotak Mahindra Bank, Tech Mahindra, Bharti Airtel

Top Sensex laggards

Maruti Suzuki, Sun Pharma, HDFC Bank

Stock moves

Avenue Supermart: The stock of DMart operator gained over a percent to hit a new 52-week high of Rs 4,784 on April 10 after it announced the opening of a new store in Bengaluru, taking the number of stores to 366.

Ramco System: The stock rose 18 percent to Rs 335 in the morning trade after the company signed a multi-million-dollar deal with Korea's largest airline, Korean Air, to accelerate the tech transformation of its new engine maintenance complex.

Godawari Power and Ispat: The stock surged over 7 percent after the company said it resumed full operations at its biomass power plant in Chhattisgarh following a fire incident in the previous year.