The trends on Gift Nifty also indicate a positive start for the Indian benchmark index. The Gift Nifty was trading around 24,259 level, a premium of nearly 120 points from the Nifty futures’ previous close.

Sectorally, auto and pharma stocks outperformed, with the Nifty Auto index zooming half a percent, while the pharma index shot up 0.7 percent in the early session.

Dollar Index: The US Dollar Index (DXY), which measures the dollar’s value against a basket of six foreign currencies, was down 0.11% at 99.73 on Thursday morning.