Mumbai: The BSE benchmark Sensex surged 600 points on Tuesday, propelled by market heavyweight RIL, ITC, banking and IT shares amid positive global cues.

Sliding crude oil prices in the international markets and buying by foreign investors also bolstered sentiment, traders said.

The 30-share BSE Sensex ended 600.42 points or 0.99% higher at 61,032.26. During the session, the index witnessed a high of 61,102.74 and a low of 60,550.25.

The broader NSE Nifty surged 158.95 points or 0.89% to finish at 17,929.85.

ITC topped the Sensex gainers’ chart with a jump of 3.31 per cent, followed by Reliance Industries, Bajaj Finance, ICICI Bank, Infosys, Axis Bank and Wipro.

On the other hand, NTPC, UltraTech Cement, L&T, Sun Pharma, Asian Paints and Maruti were among the major laggards, shedding as much as 1.10 per cent.

“Domestic indices edged higher, inspired by their global counterparts, as investors await the U.S. inflation numbers today. The whammy over India’s retail inflation breaching the RBI’s tolerance level was cooled by WPI inflation easing to 4.73 pc in January.

“IT stocks were in focus as investors anticipated a slowdown in US inflation, which could result in favourable Fed policy,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

Retail inflation again breached the Reserve Bank’s upper tolerance limit and touched a three-month high of 6.52 per cent in January, mainly due to higher food prices, as per official data released after market hours on Monday.

However, the wholesale price-based inflation eased for the eight consecutive month to 4.73% in January on easing prices of manufactured items, fuel and power.

Elsewhere in Asia, markets in Shanghai, Tokyo and Seoul posted gains, while Hong Kong settled lower.