Sensex advances on earnings optimism, surges 156 points

The benchmark BSE Sensex gained over 156 points in early trade today as investors widened their positions ahead of quarterly earnings from some bluechip companies amid positive Asian cues.

Moreover, continuous buying by domestic financial institutions also supported trading sentiment.The 30-share index gathered 156.24 points, or 0.48 per cent, to 32,662.96 with all the sectoral indices led by oil & gas, realty, PSU and metal trading higher.

The gauge had rallied 116.76 points in the previous session.

The NSE index Nifty too climbed 34.25 points, or 0.33 per cent, to trade above the 10,200-mark at 10,219.10.

Brokers said fresh spell of buying by investors ahead of quarterly earnings from Infosys and a few other



bluechip companies later in the day and a firming trend at other Asian bourses buoyed trading sentiment here.

Major gainers were ONGC, NTPC, Tata Steel, Hindustan Unilever, Axis Bank, Asian Paint, ICICI Bank, Coal India, SBI, Maruti Suzuki, Wipro and Power Grid, rising up to 2.42 per cent.

Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth Rs 307.84 crore in yesterday's trade, as per provisional data issued by the stock exchanges.

Among other Asian markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.12 per cent and Japan's Nikkei gained 0.17 per cent, while Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.09 per cent in early trade today.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average, however, shed 0.23 per cent in yesterday.