Sensex surges over 500 points in early trade; Nifty tops 17,800

Mumbai: Equity benchmark Sensex jumped over 500 points in early trade on Monday tracking gains in index majors Infosys, Bharti Airtel and HDFC amid a positive trend in global markets.

The 30-share index was trading 506.20 points or 0.85 per cent higher at 59,813.13 in initial deals. Similarly, the Nifty rose 158.40 points or 0.90 per cent to 17,830.05. Bharti Airtel was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising around 3 per cent, followed by HCL Tech, Tata Steel, Tech Mahindra, Infosys and Axis Bank. On the other hand, M&M, Bajaj Finserv, Dr Reddy’s , HUL and Reliance Industries were among the laggards.

In the previous session, the 30-share index had plunged 677.77 points or 1.13 per cent to end at 59,306.93, and Nifty fell 185.60 points or 1.04 per cent to 17,671.65.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital market, as they offloaded shares worth Rs 5,142.63 crore on Friday, as per exchange data.

Markets seem to have reached a rise-on-sell mode as premium valuations of markets and no positive surprise from earnings especially due to higher input costs have weighed on investors’ sentiments, said Binod Modi Head-Strategy at Reliance Securities.

“However, despite that overall performance so far has been good with sharp growth in revenue aiding double digit growth in earnings. In our view, the market may remain volatile with downward bias in the near term and investors will track pricing power of the industries,” he stated.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shanghai, Seoul and Tokyo were trading with gains in mid-session deals, while Hong Kong was in the red. Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude fell 0.33 per cent to USD 83.44 per barrel.