Sensex recoups 218 points, 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 per cent, 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 per cent, 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, country's second largest software exporter, which had crashed over 15 per cent in the past two sessions after Vishal Sikka's surprise resignation last Friday as CEO, recovered by 1.05 per cent to trade at Rs 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 per cent.

Among other Asian markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 1.06 per cent, while Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.15 per cent in early trade today. Japan's Nikkei too rose 0.07 per cent.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.13 per cent higher in yesterday's trade.