Sensex starts on choppy note; Nifty tests 17,450 — Reliance Industries, Dr Reddy's, Asian Paints, Sun Pharma, L&T, Bajaj Finance, Infosys and HDFC top gainers

Equity benchmark Sensex opened on a choppy note on Thursday, as investors followed the risk-off mode.

The 30-share index opened over 200 points higher, but soon turned negative and was trading 38.52 points or 0.07 per cent lower at 58,611.16 in initial deals.

Similarly, the Nifty slipped 17.60 points or 0.10 per cent to 17,452.15.

Reliance Industries was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising over 1 per cent, followed by Dr Reddy's, Asian Paints, Sun Pharma, L&T, Bajaj Finance, Infosys and HDFC.

On the other hand, HDFC Bank, Tata Steel, NTPC, TCS and Titan were among the laggards.

In the previous session, the 30-share equity benchmark zoomed 1,016.03 points or 1.76 per cent to finish at 58,649.68, and Nifty rallied 293.05 points or 1.71 per cent to 17,469.75.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers in the capital market, as they sold shares worth Rs 579.27 crore on Wednesday, as per exchange data.

"Today being a weekly settlement day, the heightened market volatility of the last few days is likely to continue. Sustained FII selling had pushed the market to oversold territory, facilitating a sharp rebound when risk-on resumed globally," said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Investors may take a wait and watch view now. Wait for the volatility to ebb and take a position based on emerging data, he added.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shanghai, Seoul and Hong Kong were trading with gains in mid-session deals, while Tokyo was in the red.

Stock exchanges in the US too ended with gains in the overnight session.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude rose 0.57 per cent to USD 76.25 per barrel.

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