Indian shares opened on a positive note led by buying in metal stocks and index-heavyweights.
Risk appetite was slightly frail as investors continued to remain on the sidelines amid lack of concrete resolution to US 'fiscal-cliff' issue that will lead to automatic tax hikes and spending cuts pushing world's biggest economy into recession.
The Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex index rose 40.28 points to open at 19,364.08 while the National Stock Exchange's Nifty-50 index gained17.05 points and opened at 5,887.15.
US stocks fell for fourth straight trading session on Thursday after Senate Majority Harry Reid warned that a deal is likley to miss deadline, however, stocks rebounded from lows on reports that the House would reconvene Sunday, a day before the December 31 "fiscal-cliff" deadline.
The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 18.28 points to 13,096.31 at the close. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index declined 1.73 points to end at 1,418.10 while Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 4.25 points to close at 2,985.91.
Asian shares inched up on hopes of policy easing by Bank of Japan, however, concrns over US 'fiscal-cliff' issue capped gains.
China's Shanghai Composite rose 0.34% to 2,213, Singapore's Straits Times rose 0.1% to 3,187, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.1% to 22,638 while Japan's Nikkei gained 0.7% to 10,403.
MSCI Asia Pacific index outside Japan rose 0.16% to 896.87.
On the domestic front, all sectoral indices were positive with power, metals, autos, consumer durables, FMCG, capital goods leading on BSE.
Among key Sensex stocks, Hindalco and Sterlite Industries rose 1.3% each, HDFC gained 1.4%, ONGC rose 1.3%, Reliance Industries was up 0.7%, while in auto space Maruti Suzuki and Tata Motors rose 0.5% and 0.8% on BSE
The laggards include Bharti Airtel falling 1%, Dr Reddy's declining 0.2% and Tata Steel dropped 0.1% on BSE.
The BSE mid-cap and small-cap rose nearly 0.3-0.4%.
The overall market breadth is strong as 573 stocks advanced while 122 stocks declined on the BSE.
