Mumbai, August 13

Equity benchmark Sensex jumped over 250 points to cross the 55,000-mark in early trade on Friday, led by gains in index heavyweights HDFC twins, ICICI Bank and TCS.

The 30-share index was trading 258.4 points or 0.47 per cent higher at a lifetime intra-day peak of 55,102.42, while the broader NSE Nifty advanced 69.80 points or 0.43 per cent to record 16,434.20 in initial deals.

M&M was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising over 1 per cent, followed by L&T, HDFC, ITC, Axis Bank and HDFC Bank.

On the other hand, Tech Mahindra, Dr Reddy's, Sun Pharma, PowerGrid and Tata Steel were among the laggards.

In the previous session, Sensex climbed 318.05 points or 0.58 per cent to close at 54,843.98, and Nifty advanced 82.15 points or 0.26 per cent to 16,325.15.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in the capital market as they offloaded shares worth Rs 212.11 crore on Thursday, as per provisional exchange data.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Seoul were trading with losses in mid-session deals, while Tokyo was positive.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude fell 0.59 per cent to USD 70.89 per barrel. PTI