Sensex surges over 330 pts in early trade; Nifty tops 17,800

Mumbai January 7 dmanewsdesk: Equity benchmark Sensex jumped 335 points in opening trade on Friday, tracking gains in index-heavyweights ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries and HDFC Bank amid mixed cues from Asian markets.

The BSE index was trading 335.30 points or 0.56 per cent higher at 59,937.14 in early trade. Likewise, the Nifty advanced 101.80 points or 0.57 per cent to 17,847.70.

Titan was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising over 3 per cent, followed by ICICI Bank, PowerGrid, Kotak Bank, Reliance Industries and HDFC Bank.

On the other hand, HDFC, Infosys, Dr Reddy’s, M&M and Maruti were among the laggards.

In the previous session, the 30-share index slumped 621.31 points or 1.03 per cent to finish at 59,601.84. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty plunged 179.35 points or 1 per cent to 17,745.90.

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

Stock exchanges in the US ended with losses in the overnight session.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude rose 0.77 per cent to USD 82.62 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital market, as they sold shares worth Rs 1,926.77 crore on Thursday, according to stock exchange data.

Source: PTI