Mumbai

Equity benchmark BSE Sensex jumped over 250 points in early trade on Friday, driven by gains in banking and financial stocks ahead of the Reserve Bank's bi-monthly policy review.

The 30-share index was trading 258.60 points, or 0.68 per cent, higher at 38,365.47. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty spurted 70.00 points, or 0.62 per cent, to 11,384.00.

Top Sensex gainers in early session include Yes Bank, IndusInd Bank, SBI, Vedanta, HDFC, Hero MotoCorp, Tata Steel, and HDFC Bank, rising up to 5.52 per cent.

Losers in the pack were Tata Motors, M&M, Bharti Airtel, HCL Tech, PowerGrid, L&T, and ICICI Bank, falling up to 1.18 per cent.

In the previous session on Thursday, the BSE barometer ended 198.54  points, or 0.52 per cent, lower at 38,106.87, while the Nifty fell 46.80 points, or 0.41 per cent, to close at 11,313.10.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is scheduled to announce the fourth bi-monthly monetary policy for 2019-20 on Friday, after a three-day meeting.

It is likely to go for yet another rate cut, the fifth in a row, as inflation is within the comfort zone and the need to boost the economy is pressing.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers in the capital markets, pulling out Rs 810.72 crore on Thursday, exchange data showed.

The rupee, meanwhile, strengthened by 5 paise against its previous close to trade at 70.82 in early session.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Hong Kong, Korea and Japan were trading on a weak note, as investors await US jobs data scheduled to be released later in the day, after a series of weak figures this week, which triggered concerns over the global economy.

Chinese markets are closed for the holiday week.

However, US markets on Thursday ended higher on rate cut expectations.

Brent futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 0.36 per cent to USD 57.92 per barrel.

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