Sensex recoups 218 pts, Nifty reclaims 9,800 in early trade

The BSE benchmark Sensex rebounded over 218 points and the NSE Nifty went past the 9,800-mark in early trade today on fresh buying by investors amid a firming trend in Asian markets. The 30-share index was trading higher by 218.19 points, or 0.70%, to 31,477.04 with the sectoral indices led by oil & gas, metal, IT, consumer durables, teck, PSU, healthcare and auto leading the recovery.

The gauge had lost 536.61 points in the previous two sessions. The NSE Nifty was up 74.10 points, or 0.75%, at 9,828.45 in early trade. Brokers said emergence of buying coupled with a positive trend in other regional markets following overnight gains in the US influenced sentiments here.

Stocks of Infosys, the country’s second largest software exporter, which had crashed over 15% in the past two sessions after Vishal Sikka’s surprise resignation last Friday as CEO, recovered by 1.05% to trade at ₹882.70. Other big gainers were Lupin, Axis Bank, Wipro, Tata Motors, Sun pharma, Hindustan Unilever, ONGC, Coal India, Cipla, Dr Reddy’s, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Industries, rising by up to 1.62%.

Among other Asian markets, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 1.06%, while Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.15% in early trade today. Japan’s Nikkei too rose 0.07%. The U.S. Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.13% higher in yesterday’s trade.

IDEA Cellular Limited

National Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSE)