Sensex surges over 350 points in early trade; Nifty tops 14,900

MUMBAI: Equity benchmark Sensex rallied over 350 points in early trade on Monday, tracking gains in index majors HDFC twins, ICICI Bank and Kotak Bank amid largely positive cues from global markets.

The 30-share BSE index was trading 353.64 points or 0.72 per cent higher at 49,560.11 in initial deals.

Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty surged 114.85 points or 0.77 per cent to 14,938.

Dr Reddy's was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising over 2 per cent, followed by ONGC, HDFC, IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank, Sun Pharma and Kotak Bank.

On the other hand, UltraTech Cement, Bajaj Finance, Nestle India and Infosys were among the laggards.

In the previous session, Sensex climbed 256.71 points or 0.52 per cent to finish at 49,206.47, and Nifty rose 98.35 points or 0.67 per cent to 14,823.15.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital market as they offloaded shares worth Rs 1,142.

75 crore on Friday, according to provisional exchange data.

"Domestic equities look good at the moment. Favourable global cues, steady March quarter earnings along with favourable commentary, liquidity support announced by the RBI and absence of nationwide lockdown have aided domestic equities to shrug off rising COVID-19 cases in the country," said Binod Modi, Head Strategy at Reliance Securities.

However, elevated daily caseload, higher positivity rate and rising COVID-19 cases in hinterlands of the country are expected to weigh on investors' sentiments and will prevent the market from taking any decisive upmove, he added.

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

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.44 per cent higher at USD 68.58 per barrel.