At 0919 hrs, the Sensex was up 58 points at 28,067 and the Nifty added 12 points to trade at 8,395.

The broader markets started strong with the midcap index up 0.5% and the smallcap index was up 0.3%.

Sectors & Stocks

On the sectoral front, Consumer Durables index gainer over a percent in opening deals followed by Capital Goods, Power, FMCG and Health Care indices up 0.2-0.7%.

BHEL, Sun Pharma, Cipla, L&T and Hindalco up 1-2% were the top gainers among Sensex-30.

Meanwhile, Dr Reddys, HDFC, Tata Steel, ITC and TCS down 0.3-1.2% were some of the notable names in red in opening deals.

Tata Steel declined as the company warned investors on Wednesday it did not see improvements coming swiftly in Europe, where steel demand has languished since the financial crisis and clients have turned to cheaper Chinese imports.

Among other stocks, National Aluminium (Nalco) has surged 8% to Rs 63.10 after reporting a robust 91% year on year jump in net profit to Rs 342 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2014 (Q2), on back of higher income and operational performance.

The market breadth was positive on BSE. 939 stocks advanced while 451 stocks declined.

Global Markets

In Asia, shares slipped slightly on Thursday as investors looked to a run of Chinese economic indicators due later in the day, while Wall Street shares ended a five-day winning streak as falling oil prices hurt energy stocks.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan ticked down 0.1% with resource-heavy Australian shares falling 0.5%.

Japan's Nikkei fell 0.3% after big gains in the previous two sessions on expectations that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will postpone a planned tax hike next year to support the economy.

Overnight, the Dow and S&P 500 ended slightly lower on Wednesday, breaking their five-day streak of record closing highs as energy and utility shares lost ground, while the Nasdaq climbed.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 2.7 points, or 0.02%, to 17,612, the S&P 500 lost 1.43 points, or 0.07%, to 2,038 and the Nasdaq Composite added 14.58 points, or 0.31%, to 4,675.