Sensex surges over 300 points in early trade; Nifty tops 14,900

MUMBAI: Equity benchmark Sensex surged over 300 points in early trade on Thursday, tracking gains in index heavyweights HDFC twins, ICICI Bank and Infosys amid a positive trend in global markets.

The 30-share BSE index was trading 343.32 points or 0.69 per cent higher at 50,005.08, and the broader NSE Nifty advanced 102.90 points or 0.69 per cent to 14,921.95.

HDFC was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising around 2 per cent, followed by Bajaj Finserv, Tech Mahindra, UltraTech Cement, ICICI Bank, SBI and Infosys.

On the other hand, Bajaj Auto, ONGC, Nestle India, Dr Reddy's and Kotak Bank were among the laggards. In the previous session, Sensex jumped 460.37 points or 0.94 per cent to finish at 49,661.76, and Nifty advanced 135.55 points or 0.92 per cent to 14,819.05.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers in the capital market as they purchased shares worth Rs 227.42 crore on Wednesday, as per exchange data.

"Domestic equities look to be modestly good now. Market has once again defied concerns of rising COVID-19 cases in the country after favourable outcome from RBI's policy meeting and assurance of no nationwide lockdown by government," said Binod Modi, Head-Strategy at Reliance Securities.

However, local level mobility restrictions due to continued surge in new coronavirus cases in various parts of the country are expected to keep markets volatile in the near term, he noted.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Seoul were trading on a positive note in mid-session deals, while Tokyo was in the red.

US equities mostly ended with marginal gains after the release of minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting showed that members of the Federal Reserve were in no hurry to tighten monetary support amid pandemic, Modi said.

"Despite improving economic outlook and labour market, Fed officials stated that it will take some time before any type of tapering of the monthly asset purchase programme and tightening in policy rates. This has certainly offered respite to global equities," he added.

Meanwhile, the global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.19 per cent lower at USD 63.04 per barrel.