India, Oct. 16 -- India's stock market opened higher today, driven by gains in private banks after Axis Bank Ltd. reported its quarterly results on Wednesday.

At 10:03 am, the 30-share S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.52% to 83,031.83 points even as the wider NSE Nifty 50 was trading 0.47% higher at 25,442.75 points. Fifteen of the 16 major sector logged gains at open. The small-caps and mid-caps gained 0.6% and 0.2%, respectively.

Private banks climbed 1%, led by a 3% jump in Axis Bank's share price. The two highest weighted stocks-HDFC Bank Ltd. and ICICI Bank Ltd.-advanced 0.6% each, while third heaviest stock Reliance Industries Ltd. added 0.5%.

Axis Bank reported a bigger-than-expected drop in second-quarter profit on Wednesday, as higher pr...