The Indian equity benchmark indices opened higher on Thursday amid mixed global cues as the fears of the spread of Delta variant of coronavirus overshadowed easing US inflation and the Federal Reserve's rush to taper bond purchases.

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NSE

At 9:15 am, the Sensex opened 0.21 percent, or 115.29 points higher at 54,641.22, and the Nifty50 index opened at 16,303.65, up 21.40 points, or 0.13 percent. Broader markets, smallcap and midcap indices supported the upmove.

On Nifty50 index, Power Grid, M&M, ITC, Tata Motors, and UPL were the top gainers with each stock rising between 1-2 percent. Whereas, Dr Reddy's, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Eicher Motors, Divi's Labs, and Axis Bank led the losses.

Among NSE's sectoral gauges, metals, banks and auto indices led the gains, whereas Nifty Pharma witnessed selling.

Globally, Asian shares though opened stronger, they failed to retain gains as fears of coronavirus hampering economic recovery resurfaced.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.25 percent, dragged by a 0.24 percent decline in Chinese bluchips. The Hong Kong benchmark fell 0.2 percent and Japan's Nikkei rose 0.35 percent.

US stock futures were little changed, with S&P 500 e-minis down 0.02 percent even though Dow Jones rose over 200 points in trading.

Oil largely held onto gains from earlier in the week, US crude dipped 0.03 percent to $69.23 a barrel. Brent crude was flat at $71.43 per barrel.

Gold also held on to overnight gains on Thursday, with the spot price down 0.1 percent having risen 1.3 percent in the previous session.

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