Sensex surges 215 points; Nifty goes past 8,250-mark

Mumbai: The BSE Sensex continued its advance by surging 215 points on across-the-board buying, buoyed by higher Asian indices.

Retail investors pressed ahead with value-buying as cash crunch following demonetisation started losing its bite.

The NSE 50-share Nifty also rose 66.55 points, or 0.81 percent, at 8,257.05 at 1147 hours.

Taking cues from global markets the key Indian equity market indices opened higher on Thursday.

BSE Sensex rebounded over 171 points and the NSE Nifty regained the 8,200-mark in the opening trade, reflecting gains in Asia after US Fed minutes suggested a less hawkish stance from policymakers.

The 30-share index was trading higher by 171.39 points, or 0.64 percent, at 26,804.52 with all sectoral indices led by metal, auto, realty and banking stocks in the green.

The gauge had lost 10.11 points in the previous session.

Besides, the NSE Nifty reclaimed the 8,200-mark by recovering 51 points, or 0.62 percent, at 8,241.50.

Brokers said local shares got a leg-up from value-buying in blue-chips and a firming trend in Asia boosted by overnight gains in the US. The US shares rose after minutes of Federal Reserve's December meeting signalled a less aggressive stance on rate hike.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 1.11 percent and Shanghai Composite 0.09 percent in their early trade. Japan's Nikkei was up 0.05 percent.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.30 percent higher yesterday.

With Agency Inputs