Markets bounce back in early trade on firm global trends; buying in ITC, Reliance

Mumbai: Benchmark equity indices bounced back in early trade on Friday amid firm global market trends and buying in ITC and Reliance Industries.

Recovering from the sharp decline in the previous trade, the 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 203.52 points to 72,607.69 in early deals. The NSE Nifty went up by 83.7 points to 22,041.20.

From the Sensex basket, ITC, Axis Bank, NTPC, JSW Steel, Hindustan Unilever, Asian Paints, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Industries were the biggest gainers.

Infosys, HDFC Bank, HCL Technologies and Larsen & Toubro were the laggards.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong were trading with gains while Shanghai quoted lower.

Wall Street ended in positive territory on Thursday.

"Gains in overseas markets are likely to help local benchmark indices register gains in early trade on Friday after yesterday's sharp sell-off," Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd said in his pre-opening market comment.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.55 per cent to USD 84.34 a barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 6,994.86 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data.

Declining for the third day running, the BSE benchmark dropped 1,062.22 points or 1.45 per cent to settle at 72,404.17 on Thursday. The NSE Nifty dived 345 points or 1.55 per cent to 21,957.50.