Sensex rises over 150 points in early trade

Mumbai: Continuing its winning streak for a fourth straight session Monday, the BSE benchmark Sensex surged over 150 points as investors maintained their bullish stance in early trade on positive cues from other Asian bourses.

Strengthening rupee also supported the upward move in the domestic stock market, dealers said.

The domestic unit gained paise 19 to 69.76 against the US dollar in morning trade.

The 30-share index rose 160.03 points, or 0.44 per cent, to trade at 36,236.75.

In similar movement, the NSE Nifty breached the 10,900 mark, and was trading 50.20 points, or 0.46 per cent, higher at 10,910.10.

On Friday, the Sensex had rallied 269.44 points or 0.75 per cent to finish at 36,076.72, while the broader NSE Nifty spurted 80.10 points, or 0.74 per cent, to 10,859.90.

Banking, Pharma, and IT stocks were the biggest gainers on bourses in early



session. Brent crude, the international benchmark, was trading 0.94 per cent up at USD 53.71 per barrel.

Top gainers include Axis Bank, M&M, Tata Motors, Sun Pharma, HCL Tech, Maruti, HUL, TCS, Bharti Airtel and SBI. While NTPC, HDFC, ICICI Bank, Kotak Bank, Power Grid and ONGC were among the top losers.

On a net basis, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 119.60 crore Friday, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net buyers to the tune of Rs 1,199.40 crore, provisional data available with BSE showed.

Elsewhere in Asia, Japan's Nikkei fell 0.31 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 1.4 per cent, Kospi gained 0.62 per cent and Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.44 per cent in early trade.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index fell 76.42 points, or 0.33 per cent, to 23,062.40 in its previous session.