Mumbai: Share markets made a firm start on Friday with the BSE Sensex climbing over 293 points in early trade amid fresh buying by foreign funds and largely positive global market trends.

The 30-share BSE benchmark advanced 293.33 points to 55,975.28 in early trade. The broader NSE Nifty climbed 92.5 points to 16,697.75.

Among the Sensex constituents, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC, Titan Company, UltraTech Cement, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, State Bank of India and Reliance Industries were trading in the green.

Infosys, IndusInd Bank, NTPC and ITC were trading lower.

In Asia, share markets in Tokyo and Hong Kong were trading higher, while Seoul and Shanghai quoted lower.

The US markets had ended higher on Thursday.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude jumped 1.08 per cent to USD 104.96 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors remained net buyers on Thursday, buying shares worth Rs 1,799.32 crore, as per exchange data.

The BSE benchmark climbed 284.42 points or 0.51 per cent to settle at 55,681.95 on Thursday. The Nifty went higher by 84.40 points or 0.51 per cent to 16,605.25.

"Domestic market is likely to see a positive start on Friday thanks to optimism in other world equity indices, as falling crude oil prices and easing bets on the US Fed rate hike have provided investors a major relief, triggering a rally in the past few sessions.

"In the domestic market, FIIs have started taking exposure to local shares, with a net purchase of Rs 1,799 crore in yesterday's trade," Prashanth Tapse, Vice President (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd, had said in his pre-opening market comment.

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