Sensex surges over 300 points in early trade; Tata Motors up by 2%

Mumbai: Continuing with the positive momentum, Sensex surged more than 300 points in early trade on Friday while Nifty gained over 80 points as encouraging global cues boosted investor sentiments.

The 30-share Sensex climbed 306.34 points or 0.43 per cent to 72,356.72 points and the broader 50-share Nifty rose 81.05 or 0.37 per cent to 21,991.80 points.

As many as 22 Sensex constituents were trading in the green, with Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors jumping more than 2 per cent.

In the Nifty pack, 40 scrips gained in early trade.

Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities, said, share indices in the Asia-Pacific region were trading in positive, boosted by overnight gains on Wall Street as US retail sales data declined more than expected in January, giving some relief to investors after hotter-than-expected inflation print.

On Thursday, Sensex and Nifty closed in the positive territory, making it the third straight session of gains.

While Sensex climbed 227.55 points to close at 72,050.38 points, Nifty rose 70.70 points to end the day at 21,910.75 points.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net sellers on Thursday, offloading shares worth Rs 3,064.15 crore.

V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said FIIs sold equities worth Rs 6,993 crore in the cash market while DIIs (Domestic Institutional Investors) bought equities worth Rs 5,173 crore.

"The trend of FII selling is likely to continue since the 10-year US bond yield is high at 4.24 per cent. The trend of DII buying too is likely to continue since the flows into the DIIs continue to be robust," he said.