After trading in red since the start of the United States-Israel-Iran war last week, domestic equity markets opened in green on Thursday.
During the early trade hours, the 30-share Sensex climbed over 500 points. Nifty 50 jumped above the 24,600 mark. Both the benchmark indices were up over 0.60 percent.
The reversal from the decline of the last two sessions tracked the global equity markets, which were trading higher to shed some of their losses faced since the onset of the war in West Asia.
After days of distress selling of equities, some buying sentiment has come up among investors, which led to the mild recovery, according to experts. However, they caution that this should not be seen as a trend going forward as an end to the war was still not visible.
Hence, crude oil prices continued to rise in global trade. Brent crude and WTI crude were up almost 2.8 percent, with the former crossing the $84 per barrel mark.
Despite this, Indian energy companies traded in green on Thursday. Petronet, which was the worst performer on Wednesday, gained over 1.5 percent to trade at Rs 284 apiece.
It is the largest natural gas importer from India, with a significant share of the company’s LNG imports dependent on the West Asian nations, particularly Qatar.
Another major oil player, Reliance Industries, opened higher at Rs 1,349.30 on the bourses on Thursday and further rose to Rs 1,384.35 apiece with a 2.86 percent upside during the early trade.
Among PSU stocks, Indian Oil Corporation shares were up 2.87 percent, Hindustan Petroleum’s share price gained 2.37 percent, while the stock of Bharat Petroleum Corporation rose 1.37 percent.
Earlier in the week, several Indian LNG companies were reported to have limited the supply of natural gas to domestic industries. India is dependent on imports for over 80 percent of its energy needs, out of which almost 20 percent transits through the Strait of Hormuz. The Strait has been blocked by Iran since the war broke out.
