Sensex surges 106 points in early trade

The benchmark BSE Sensex climbed about 106 points in early trade today on widespread gains as retail investors and domestic institutional investors indulged in buying.

Short-covering of outstanding positions -- today being the last session of February series expiry in the derivatives segment -- kept the ongoing rising trend strong. The 30-share index, which had gained 709.15 points in the previous five sessions, rallied by 105.54 points, or 0.37 per cent, at 28,970.25.

Technology, realty, consumer durables, IT, oil and gas and healthcare sector stocks were leading the rally, which lifted sentiments. Shares of telecom major Bharti Airtel zoomed 10 per cent after it announced the decision to acquire Telenor India



assets.Other telecom shares such as Idea Cellular rose 7 per cent, Reliance Communication gained 3.92 per cent and Tata Teleservices went up by 4.52 per cent. The NSE Nifty was also trading higher by 30.25 points, or 0.33 per cent, at 8,957.15.

Brokers said that the market mood remained buoyant, bolstered by retail as well as domestic institutional investors' buying coupled with covering-up of short positions by speculators.

Howver, trend at other Asian markets was weak with Hong Kong's Hang Seng falling 0.43 per cent, Japan's Nikkei shedding 0.35 per cent and Shanghai Composite index falling by 0.39 per cent in early trade today. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.16 per cent up yesterday.