Sensex jumps 355 points, Nifty above 10,700

New Delhi: Markets opened in the positive zone on Wednesday led by gains in Banking and tech stocks.

The BSE Sensex jumped 355.07 points or 0.99 percent to 36,388.13 in early trade while the NSE Nifty edged higher by 106.80 points or 1.01 percent to 10,714.15.

Major gainers in the Sensex pack were Tech Mahindra, Axis Bank, Infosys, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finance, HCL Tech, IndusInd Bank, TCS, RIL, Bajaj Finserve, Maruti and ICICI Bank, rising upto 2.84 percent. On the ohter hand, major losers were Bharti Airtel, Kotak Bank and ITC, falling upto 0.84 percent.

Asian shares pared gains on Wednesday. MSCI`s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was last up 0.14%, after rising over 1% earlier in the session. Chinese shares were deep in red, with the blue-chip CSI300 index off 1% and Hong Kong`s Hang Seng index down 0.6%. Japan`s Nikkei and Australia`s benchmark index remained upbeat though, and were up 1.4% and 1%, respectively. E-mini futures for the S&P 500 gave back some of their gains but were still up 0.7%, a Reuters report said.

In the previous session on Tuesday, the BSE Sensex tanked 660.63 points or 1.8 percent lower at 36,033 while the Nifty 50 tumbled by 195.35 points or 1.81 percent to close at 10,607. Analysts believe that growing concerns about rising COVID-19 cases and fresh round of lockdown in several states have weighed on investor sentiments.