Markets rebound in early trade amid firm trends at Wall Street, buying in Kotak Bank

Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices rebounded in early trade on Monday following a rally in the US markets and heavy buying in Kotak Mahindra Bank.

The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 328.54 points to 74,206.69 in early trade. The NSE Nifty advanced 93.45 points to 22,569.30.

From the Sensex basket, Kotak Mahindra Bank jumped over 4 per cent after the company reported a 25 per cent growth in its March quarter net profit at Rs 5,302 crore, limited by a drop in the core income due to narrow interest margins.

Tata Consultancy Services, JSW Steel, IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank, Wipro and Axis Bank were among the other major gainers.

Titan, State Bank of India, Power Grid and Larsen & Toubro were the laggards.

In Asian markets, Shanghai and Hong Kong were trading in the positive territory.

Wall Street ended with significant gains on Friday.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett said that the Indian market has "unexplored" opportunities which his conglomerate holding company, Berkshire Hathaway, would like to explore "in the future".

Buffett's remarks came at Berkshire's annual meeting on Friday when Rajeev Agarwal of DoorDarshi Advisors, a US-based hedge fund that invests in Indian equities, asked him about the possibility of Berkshire exploring in India, the world's fifth-largest economy.

"Positive comment by Warren Buffett that India is an untapped market with great potential is hugely important. FIIs can take a cue from that rather than react every time to changes in US bond yields," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.

The US jobs data for April has come lower-than-expected indicating a weakening labour market and slowing economy, Vijayakumar said.

"US unemployment has risen to 3.9 per cent in April. So the possibility of a rate cut by the Fed has again brightened. The decline in the dollar index to 105.8 and the cut in the 10-year US bond yield to 4.49 per cent augur well for the market," he added.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.23 per cent to USD 83.15 a barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 2,391.98 crore on Friday, according to exchange data.

The BSE benchmark dropped 732.96 points or 0.98 per cent to settle at 73,878.15 on Friday. The NSE Nifty also declined 172.35 points or 0.76 per cent to 22,475.85.