Indian Markets Open Higher As US Reaches Phase 1 Trade Deal With China

Reports that the US had reached an agreement with China on Phase 1 of a trade deal, pushed global stocks higher. The S&P 500 jumped to a record high on Thursday and Dow Futures were pointing to higher openings. In Asia markets were strong with most major markets including the Japanese Nikkei and the Hong Kong's Hang Sang were seen trading higher.

The Sensex was trading with gains of 233 points, while the Nifty was up 68 points in trade. Shares in HeroMotor Corp gained ground after reports that the company was set to launch 10-11 BS-VI products by the middle of February.

Stocks that lost ground from the Nifty were Bharti Airtel, Dr Reddy's Labs and Britannia Industries.

Shares in Wipro gained ground after reports that the company bagged multi-year order from Olympus for cloud services. The shares were up 1 per cent in trade at Rs 242.

Yes Bank, which has seen immense volatility over the last few trading sessions, was trading with gains of 2.5 per cent.

Banking stocks which saw a surge in trade on Thursday were a bit subdued, following a very high inflation data. This raised doubts on the pace of future interest rate cuts by the RBI.