Sensex takes cue from Asia, bounces 217 points

The Sensex rebounded almost 217 points and the NSE went past the 8,700-mark today after investors chased blue-chips amid a rally in Asian markets.

The 30-share index was trading higher by 216.80 points, or 0.77 per cent, to 28,201.17, with all the sectoral indices led by banking, consumer durables and realty leading the recovery, rising by up to 1.25 per cent.The gauge had lost 66.51 points yesterday after investors booked profit and global conditions stayed mixed.

The NSE Nifty was up 64 points, or 0.73 per cent, at 8,723.10 in early trade.

Brokers said emergence



of buying coupled with a firming trend in other regional bourses following overnight gains in the US, supported by a surge in oil prices on surprise drop in stock inventory, influenced sentiment here.

Stocks of Reliance Industries and Yes Bank were trading higher by 0.93 per cent and 1.18 per cent, respectively, ahead of their second quarterly earnings scheduled for later in the day.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.67 per cent while Japan's Nikkei gained 1.03 per cent in early trade today.The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.22 per cent higher yesterday.