Sensex opens in green, soars on global cues in early trade, F&O expiry

Opening on a positive note, the BSE Sensex surged over 246 points to rise above the 35,000-mark on Thursday morning.

Tracking a firm trend in the global markets amid sustained buying by domestic institutional investors (DIIs), the key Indian equity indices rose by 246.06 points, or 0.70 per cent, at 35,152.17 in the opening trade today.

Short-covering of bets, Thursday being the last session of May expiry in the derivatives segment, kept the overall tempo up.

Heavy buying by investors ahead of GDP data scheduled to be released later today too buoyed trading sentiments, brokers said.

The 30-share index, which had lost 259.37 points in the previous two sessions, regained by 246.06 points, or 0.70 per cent, at 35,152.17.

The NSE Nifty too was trading higher by 61.75 points, or 0.58 per cent, at 10,676.10.

Meanwhile, according to provisional data on Wednesday, DIIs bought shares worth Rs 492.46 crore, while foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net of Rs 1,286.91 crore.

Major Gainers: Coal India, HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel, HUL, ONGC, Tata Steel, L&T, Kotak Bank, HDFC Ltd, NTPC, Wipro, RIL, Infosys and M&M, with gains of up to 2.81 per cent.

However, shares of the country's largest private lender ICICI Bank plunged 1.49 per cent after the bank ordered an independent probe into allegations against its MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar's dealing with certain borrowers.

Brokers said continued pumping of funds by DIIs and a firming trend at over Asian bourses, tracking recoveries in the US and Europe as fears of a political crisis in Italy abated, spurred fresh round of buying on the domestic bourses.

Globally, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.95 per cent, Japan's Nikkei gained 0.60 per cent while Shanghai Composite index rallied 1.20 per cent in early trade today.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 1.26 per cent higher yesterday.

(With PTI inputs)