Mumbai, May 7 (IANS) The key Indian equity indices opened on a positive note on Tuesday with the BSE Sensex trading over 170 points higher.

Top gainers in early session were Vedanta, Coal India, Hero MotoCorp, TCS, SBI, Tata Steel, Axis Bank, PowerGrid, Yes Bank, Tata Motors, HUL, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Infosys, rising up to 1.83 per cent. On the other hand, IndusInd Bank, ONGC, RIL, Sun Pharma, HCL Tech and Bharti Airtel fell up to 1.92 per cent.

According to traders, banking and IT stocks lifted investor sentiment despite choppy cues from other global markets.

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold equity worth Rs 948.98 crore on Monday, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased shares to the tune of Rs 89.89 crore, provisional data available with stock exchanges showed.