Sensex jumps over 200 pts in early trade; Nifty tops 11,950

Mumbai, Oct 23 (PTI): Equity benchmark Sensex jumped over 200 points in early trade on Friday, tracking gains in index majors HDFC twins, ICICI Bank and TCS amid positive cues from global markets.

The 30-share BSE index was trading 228.56 points or 0.56 per cent higher at 40,787.05, and the broader NSE Nifty rose 70.70 points or 0.59 per cent to 11,967.15.

Tata Steel was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, shedding around 2 per cent, followed by Maruti, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Finance, HDFC twins and TCS.

On the other hand, Infosys, HCL Tech, HUL and Asian Paints were the laggards.

In the previous session, Sensex settled 148.82 points or 0.37 per cent lower at 40,558.49, and the broader NSE Nifty fell 41.20 points or 0.35 per cent to 11,896.45.

Exchange data showed that foreign institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 1,118.46 crore on a net basis on Thursday.

According to Arjun Yash Mahajan, Head Institutional Business at Reliance Securities, domestic markets look to be good as of now given positive cues from global markets.

“However, we do not expect any meaningful gain and market may consolidate at 11,900-12,000 levels. Ongoing fiscal stimulus negotiations in the US and 2QFY21 earnings are two crucial factors to decide the market direction in the near term,” he said.

On the global front, bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul were trading on a positive note in mid-session deals.

Stock exchanges on Wall Street too ended with gains in the overnight session.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.02 per cent lower at USD 42.45 per barrel.