Sensex surges over 400 points in early trade; Nifty tops 16,550

Mumbai: Equity benchmark Sensex rallied over 400 points in early trade on Monday, tracking gains in index majors Reliance Industries, Infosys and HDFC twins amid a positive trend in global equities.

The 30-share index was trading 411.04 points or 0.74 per cent higher at 55,740.36, while the broader NSE Nifty jumped 109.35 points or 0.66 per cent to 16,559.85.

HCL Tech was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising over 2 per cent, followed by Bajaj Finance, L&T, Tata Steel, Tech Mahindra, TCS and Reliance Industries.

On the other hand, PowerGrid and HUL were the laggards.

In the previous session, Sensex slumped 300.17 points or 0.54 per cent to close at 55,329.32, and Nifty tumbled 118.35 points or 0.71 per cent to 16,450.50.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital market as they offloaded shares worth Rs 2,287.03 crore on Friday, as per provisional exchange data.

?Domestic equities look inspiring as of now. Minutes of the MPC meeting held at the beginning of this month continues to show RBI's commitment to ensure policy support to sustain economic recovery despite select members showing some apprehensions about high inflation and pitching for gradual normalisation in ultra-soft monetary policy,? said Binod Modi, Head Strategy at Reliance Securities.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul were trading with strong gains in mid-session deals.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude rose 1.79 per cent to USD 65.91 per barrel.