Sensex rallies over 300 points in early trade

Mumbai: BSE benchmark Sensex Friday rallied over 300 points and NSE Nifty reclaimed the 10,800 mark on firm global cues, heavy foreign fund inflow and strengthening rupee.

Extending gains for the third session, the 30-share index was trading 306.16 points, or 0.86 per cent, higher at 36,113.44.

The index had ended 157.34 points, or 0.44 per cent, higher at 35,807.28 in the previous session Thursday.

The broader Nifty too jumped 86.75 points, or 0.80 per cent, to 10,866.55 .

The gains on Dalal Street were led by pharma, auto, realty and financial stocks.

Top gainers include HDFC duo, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, L&T, ITC, HUL, SBI, TCS and Sun Pharma, rising up to 2 per cent.

On the other hand, Coal India, NTPC and Hero MotoCorp were the top losers, falling up to 1 per cent.

According to Rahul Mishra, AVP (Derivatives), Emkay Global Financial Services, markets have been very volatile through the month; state election, global cues and crude oil price



movement have kept the market busy.

However, market has seen good recovery since Nifty hit the month's low on state election result day. Global cues provided good resistance, he said.

The rupee, meanwhile, strengthened against the US dollar, up 30 paise at 70.05 a dollar from its previous close.

Brent crude, the international benchmark, was up 1.63 per cent at USD 53.59 per barrel.

On a net basis, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth Rs 1,731.91 crore Wednesday, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net sellers to the tune of Rs 663.00 crore, provisional data available with BSE showed.

Elsewhere in Asia, Japan's Nikkei fell 0.47 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.12 per cent, Kospi gained 0.66 per cent and Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.15 per cent in early trade.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index rose 260.37 points, or 1.14 per cent, to 23,138.82 in its previous session Thursday.