Equity markets climb in early trade

Mumbai: Benchmark equity indices climbed in early trade on Monday, extending their previous day’s rally, amid buying in index majors ICICI Bank and Reliance Industries along with a mixed trend in Asian markets.

The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 210.43 points to 65,931.68 in early trade. The NSE Nifty advanced 66.1 points to 19,583.10.

From the Sensex pack, Mahindra & Mahindra, Sun Pharma, Larsen & Toubro, NTPC, ICICI Bank, UltraTech Cement, Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services, HCL Technologies and Reliance Industries were the major gainers.

Nestle, Tata Steel, ITC, IndusInd Bank, Power Grid and Bajaj Finance were among the laggards.

In Asian markets, Tokyo and Hong Kong quoted in the green while Seoul and Shanghai were trading lower.

The US markets ended lower on Friday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.06 per cet to USD 86.19 a barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 556.32 crore on Friday, according to exchange data.

After three days of decline, the Sensex on Friday climbed 480.57 points or 0.74 per cent to settle at 65,721.25. The Nifty advanced 135.35 points or 0.70 per cent to end at 19,517.