Sensex Up 687 Points; Nifty Tops 17,300

Indian shares opened higher on Friday as global markets steadied after the recent Fed-induced sell-off.

The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex jumped 687 points, or 1.2 percent, to 57,964 in early trade, while the broader NSE Nifty index was up 228 points, or 1.3 percent, at 17,334.

Among the prominent gainers, NTPC, Eicher Motors, Wipro, Mahindra & Mahindra and ONGC rallied 3-5 percent.

PNB edged up slightly after its quarterly net profit jumped 123 percent.

TVS Motor Company slumped 6 percent after acquiring a majority stake in electric bike maker and retailer Swiss E-Mobility Group.

Arvind jumped nearly 4 percent on reporting over four-fold jump in Q3 net profit.

Future Retail advanced 1.6 percent as the Supreme Court agreed to hear a fresh petition from the company seeking quashing of lenders’ letters threatening initiation of insolvency proceedings.

Future Enterprises rose over 2 percent. The debt-ridden Future Group said it would exit from the insurance business in a time-bound manner and plans to sell its 25 percent equity in Future Generali India Insurance Company as part of its asset monetization plans.

RBL Bank fell 2.3 percent despite reporting a 4.3 percent increase in revenue and improvement in asset quality in the December quarter.

Bharti Airtel gained 1.2 percent on news that Google will invest $1 billion in the telecom major.