Indian bourses were up in opening trading on Thursday on the back of strong global cues as well as further relaxations to COVID-related restrictions announced by the Indian Home Ministry.
The Bombay Stock Exchange's benchmark 30-share index, Sensex, zoomed 516 points to trade at 38,584. Similarly, the wider 50-share index of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), Nifty, was up by 141 points to trade at 11,389 on Thursday morning.
Indian stocks soared as the government relaxed lockdown norms and allowed multiplexes and theatres to open from 15 October. Following the announcement, the stock of multiplex company PVR Ltd went up 13 percent, while Inox Leisure soared by 14 percent.
Indian equities also reacted positively to the report published by data analytics firm IHS Markit, which says that the country's purchasing managers' index (PMI) for manufacturing rose to 56.8 in September from 52 in August, the highest mark since January 2012.
The gains in domestic equities were also propelled by the strong performance of US markets, which closed higher on Wednesday. The US indexes were up in anticipation of a fresh stimulus in the wake of the pandemic.
Asian equities like Singapore's SGX Nifty, and Australian S&P/ASX 200 climbed to over one percent on Thursday. China's Shanghai Composite was down 0.2 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.7 percent.