Markets climb in early trade on buying in Reliance, banking counters

Equity benchmarks traded with gains in early trade on Friday helped by buying in index major Reliance Industries and banking counters along with fresh foreign fund inflows.

Extending its previous day’s rally, the 30-share BSE benchmark climbed 261.95 points to 60,018.79. On similar lines, the broader NSE Nifty advanced 68.85 points to 17,805.80.

In the Sensex pack, Reliance Industries, HDFC, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, NTPC, Maruti and Kotak Mahindra Bank were the major winners.

Tata Steel, Sun Pharma, Nestle and ICICI Bank were among the laggards.

Elsewhere in Asia, markets in Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong traded lower.

Wall Street had ended on a mixed note on Thursday.

The BSE benchmark had climbed 212.88 points or 0.36% to settle at 59,756.84 on Thursday. The Nifty advanced 80.60 points or 0.46% to end at 17,736.95.

“In India, even though valuations look high from short-term perspective, there are favourable factors that can take the market higher. The important positive is the decline in the U. S. 10-year bond yield to below 4% which will persuade FPIs to buy rather than sell in the near-term. Encouraging Q2 results will provide fodder to the bulls,” V. K. Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said.

International oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.8% lower at $96.18 per barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) turned buyers on Thursday as they bought shares worth ₹2,818.40 crore, as per exchange data.