Markets continue to rally for 4th consecutive day in early trade; Sensex climbed 382.43 points

Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices made a firm start on Wednesday, rallying for the fourth day running, helped by buying in HDFC twins and a largely firm trend in global markets.

The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 382.43 points to 59,343.03 in early trade. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty advanced 98.45 points to 17,585.40.

From the Sensex pack, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Power Grid, Larsen & Toubro, Titan, Axis Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, NTPC and UltraTech Cement were the prominent winners in early trade.

HCL Technologies, State Bank of India, Infosys, Sun Pharma, Bajaj Finserv were among the laggards.

Among other Asian markets, Seoul and Tokyo traded in the green, while Shanghai and Hong Kong quoted lower.

Wall Street ended higher on Tuesday.

There are two factors supporting the ongoing rally in the market - support from the mother market US aided by some excellent quarterly results and FII selling getting completely overwhelmed by DII (Domestic Institutional Investors) buying, said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

"Good Q2 results are imparting resilience in segments like IT and financials. The festive mood is another positive," Vijayakumar added.

The BSE benchmark jumped 549.62 points or 0.94 per cent to settle at 58,960.60 on Tuesday. The Nifty surged 175.15 points or 1.01 per cent to end at 17,486.95.

International oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.59 per cent higher at USD 90.56 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers in the capital market on Tuesday as they offloaded shares worth Rs 153.40 crore, as per exchange data.