MUMBAI: Indian markets opened on a firm note Wednesday after a bout of profit booking in previous session. Realty, IT and auto stocks were in the green while FMCG space was a little subdued.

“While negative divergence was already in place since Friday (When Nifty closed at a new intermediate high but the RSI made a lower top), now the benchmark is standing at a crucial trend line support adjoining bottoms of 15th and 23rd March. MACD on the daily chart too has cut the signal line from the upside down, supporting the cautious view. A sustained trading below 5250 has the ability to take the benchmark to 5079 (38.2% retracement level of the run from 4675 to 5329) followed by 5002 (50% retracement level). Remain cautious. Put tight stoploss of 5250 in trading long positions,” said Anagram Stock Broking note.

At 9:04 am, Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex was at 17652.24, up 62.07 points or 0.35 per cent. The index touched a high of 17664.67 and low of 17602.39 in early trade.

National Stock Exchange’s Nifty was at 5280.20, up 17.75 points or 0.34 per cent. The index touched a high of 5287.20 and low of 5258.35 in trade so far.

BSE Midcap Index was up 0.55 per cent and BSE Smallcap Index moved 0.65 per cent.

Amongst the sectoral indices, BSE Realty Index was up 1.09 per cent, BSE IT Index gained 0.71 per cent and BSE Auto Index moved 0.68 per cent up. BSE FMCG Index was down 0.14 per cent.

Hero Honda (1.58%), Mahindra & Mahindra (1.58%), DLF (1.39%), Bharti Airtel (1.33%), and Infosys Technologies (1.08%) were amongst the top Sensex gainers.

ITC (-0.33%), Hindustan Unilever (-0.29%), Tata Power (-0.17%) and Hindalco Industries (-0.16%) resisted the upmove.

US stocks ended in the green after data showed some stabilization in the economy. The Dow Jones industrial average edged up 0.11 per cent, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index closed flat and Nasdaq Composite Index moved 0.26 per cent higher.

Japan's Nikkei average showed some buying activity on expectations of some recovery in growth next fiscal. However other indices were witnessing profit booking. Nikkei 225 was up 0.3 per cent, Shanghai Composite was down 0.29 per cent, Hang Seng slipped 0.03 per cent and Seoul Composite declined 0.11 per cent.