Markets trade firm in early deals; Sensex regains 60,000 mark

Mumbai: Domestic equity benchmark indices began the trade on a positive note on Tuesday helped by firm global market trends and continuous foreign fund inflows.

The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 252.39 points to 60,098.90 in early trade. The broader NSE Nifty gained 85.2 points to 17,709.25.

Among the Sensex firms, Kotak Mahindra Bank, State Bank of India, Sun Pharma, ITC, Bajaj Finserv, Maruti, UltraTech Cement and NTPC were the biggest winners in early trade.

Asian Paints, Tata Consultancy Services and HDFC were the laggards.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Japan and Hong Kong were trading in the green, while Shanghai quoted lower.

The US markets ended mostly in the positive territory on Monday.

"The resilience in Nifty is largely due to the sustained buying by FIIs and the consequent short-covering. The ongoing mild rally is likely to be sustained by individual stock performances triggered by Q4 results rather than by sectoral moves," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

The Sensex had ended marginally up by 13.54 points or 0.02 per cent to 59,846.51 on Monday. The Nifty had advanced 24.90 points or 0.14 per cent to finish at 17,624.05.

Meanwhile, global oil benchmark Brent crude jumped 0.63 per cent to USD 84.69 per barrel.

Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) further bought equities worth Rs 882.52 crore on Monday, according to exchange data.