Shares firmed up in mid-morning trade with the Sensex crossing the 34,000 mark. At 11:16 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 91.60 points or 0.27% at 34,032.04. The Nifty 50 index was up 14.60 points or 0.14% at 10,431.75.
Key indices opened on a dull note and firmed up as the session progressed. The Sensex rose 114.92 points, or 0.34% at the day's high of 34,055.36 in mid-morning trade, its highest intraday level since 13 March 2018. The index fell 15.56 points, or 0.05% at the day's low of 33,924.88 in early trade. The Nifty rose 20.40 points, or 0.20% at the day's high of 10,437.55 in mid-morning trade, its highest intraday level since 13 March 2018. The index fell 21.90 points, or 0.21% at the day's low of 10,395.25 in early trade.
Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.07%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.19%. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On BSE, 1,108 shares rose and 1,099 shares fell. A total of 113 shares were unchanged.
Cement shares declined. UltraTech Cement (down 1.05%), ACC (down 0.82%) and Ambuja Cements (down 0.08%), edged lower.
Grasim Industries was down 0.63%. Grasim has exposure to cement sector through its holding in UltraTech Cement.
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Telecom shares declined. Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (down 2.35%), Idea Cellular (down 1.42%), Bharti Airtel (down 0.51%) and Reliance Communications (down 0.44%), edged lower. MTNL was up 0.74%.
Telecom tower infrastructure provider Bharti Infratel was down 0.18%
On macro front, the government will announce industrial production data for February 2018 later today, 12 April 2018. India's industrial production rose by 7.5% year-on-year in January 2018.
The government will also disclose inflation data based on consumer price index (CPI) for March 2017 later today, 12 April 2018. The all-India general CPI inflation dipped to four-month low of 4.44% in February 2018, compared with 5.07% in January 2018.
In the global commodities markets, Brent for June 2018 settlement was up 11 cents at $72.17 a barrel. The contract surged $1.02 a barrel or 1.44% to settle at $72.06 a barrel during the previous trading session. Spike in oil prices raises India's import bill as the country imports majority of its crude requirements.
Overseas, Asian shares declined after Syria tensions and hawkish statements from the US Federal Reserve dented investors' sentiment. US stocks declined on Wednesday, as worries about geopolitical developments deflated the buying mood on Wall Street. A tweet by President Donald Trump implied the possibility of a military strike in Syria and set the downbeat tone for the session.
Trump's tweet that Russia should "get ready" for a potential strike on Syria came after a likely chemical weapons attack over the weekend on a rebel-held town in the eastern Ghouta region of Syria. The newfound focus on geopolitics took the focus off a trade spat between the US and China.
Investors also digested the release of minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee's (FOMC) March meeting, which reflected that all policymakers expected the US economy to continue growing and for inflation to rise. Those views strengthened the belief that more interest rate hikes lay ahead.
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