NEW DELHI: Benchmark indices were trading flat to positive in Thursday's morning session as investors adopted a cautious stance amid first phase of voting.

The Fed minutes which reinforced Fed’s recent dovish policy also aided the sentiment. Investors are keenly awaiting the March quarter results which kick off tomorrow with IT giants Infosys and TCS slated to announce Q4 numbers.

At around 9:30 am, BSE Sensex was up 42.99 points, or 0.11 per cent at 38,628.34 while NSE Nifty was up 10.80 points or 0.093 per cent at 11,595.10.

In the 50-pack index, 33 stocks advanced, 16 declined while one was unchanged. In the Sensex pack of stocks, 23 traded in the green while seven in the red.

Bharti Airtel was the top leader, up 1 per cent.

Other stocks trading higher were MM, HUL, Asian Paints, Tata Motors and Bajaj Auto. However, Vedanta wallowed in the red zone, down 1.27 per cent, after the company moved the SC seeking access to its now-shut copper plant at Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu to repair maintain it.

Among other losers were Kotak Bank, Sun Pharma, HCL Tech and Infosys. Nonetheless, BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap started their day with mild gains, rising 0.02 per cent and 0.23 per cent respectively. On the BSE sectoral front, telecom and Oil Gas were the biggest gainers.

However, metal, IT, healthcare and Teck were among the top losers. In the meantime, Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought Rs 1,429.92 crore worth of domestic stocks on Wednesday, data available with NSE suggested.

DIIs were net buyers to the tune of Rs 461.29 crore, data suggested. On the global front, Asian stocks stepped back from near eight-month highs on Thursday and the dollar eased as European and US central banks reinforced investor worries about the global economic outlook and trade protectionism.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.3 per cent.

Japan's Nikkei fell 0.3 per cent as the yen strengthened.