BENGALURU: Indian shares opened higher on Friday on improved global cues, after witnessing high volatility in the previous session in which the benchmarks reversed losses in the final hour of the May series expiry day.

The blue-chip Nifty 50 index was up 0.26% at 18,366.60 as of 9:16 a.m. IST, while the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.19% to 61,984.50. ($1 = 82.7176 Indian Rupees) (Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema and Sohini Goswami)