Stock markets open flat, Nifty below 10,600

New Delhi: Market opened flat on Tuesday ahead of earnings, but picked up momentum in early trading.

The BSE index jumped 123.60 points, or 0.36 percent, to 34,739.73 in early trade. The NSE Nifty too rose by 38.65 points, or 0.37 percent, to 10,555.35.

Major gainers were Bajaj Auto, Dr Reddy's, Bajaj Auto, L&T, NTPC, Tata Motors, Coal India, ONGC, HDFC Bank, Maruti and Bharti Airtel rising up to 2.16 percent.

The Sensex had lost 940.58 points in the previous five sessions as investors rushed to unwind bets following post-poll instability in Karnataka amid discouraging global cues.

Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) made purchases worth Rs 1,190.56 crore while foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 496.03 crore yesterday, as per provisional data.

Among the Asian bourses, Singapore was up by 0.04 percent, Taiwan inched up 0.08 percent, while Japan's Nikkei shed 0.01 percent and Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.47 percent in early trade.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 1.21 percent higher yesterday.

With PTI Iputs