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Mumbai, 16 July. The Indian stock market started trading on a strong note on Thursday amid mixed signals from global markets. In early trade, Sensex opened with a gain of 186 points (0.24%) at 77,388, while Nifty was seen trading at 24,142, up 63 points (0.26%).

The initial rally in the market was led by the IT sector. Nifty IT index was the biggest gainer with a gain of about 1.80 percent. Apart from this, buying was also seen in shares of consumer durables, consumption, media, auto, manufacturing, services, pharma, FMCG, metal, commodities and healthcare sectors.

However, Nifty India Defence, Realty and Financial Services indices remained under pressure and were seen trading in the red. Among the 30 Sensex stocks, HCL Tech, Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tech Mahindra, Trent, Titan, TCS, Asian Paints, Power Grid, Hindustan Unilever, Indigo, Bajaj Finance and UltraTech Cement registered good gains.

At the same time, weakness was seen in the shares of Axis Bank, Eternal, Sun Pharma, HDFC Bank, Bajaj Finserv, SBI and L&T. Market experts say that stability in crude oil prices and balanced trend of global markets have supported the Indian market. Apart from this, the first quarter (Q1) results of various companies are to be released in the coming days, the impact of which can play an important role in deciding the future direction of the market.

A mixed trend was also seen in Asian markets. The markets of Tokyo, Shanghai and Seoul remained in decline, while the indices of Hong Kong, Bangkok and Jakarta were seen trading with gains. On the other hand, US markets closed strongly on Wednesday. Dow Jones closed with a gain of 0.29 percent and Nasdaq gained 0.62 percent. The attitude of foreign investors still remains cautious. On Wednesday, FIIs made net sales of Rs 735.83 crore, while DIIs supported the market by buying Rs 704.93 crore.