Sensex crosses 57k in early trade; Nifty goes past 17,000

New Delhi: Benchmark indices continued to rally for the third day running on Friday with the Sensex climbing 619 points in early trade to reclaim the 57,000 level. The 30-share BSE benchmark jumped 619.27 points to 57,477.06. The broader NSE Nifty advanced 189.15 points to 17,118.75.

Among the Sensex constituents, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finserv, Asian Paints, Bajaj Finance, Mahindra & Mahindra, NTPC, Maruti Suzuki, Infosys, Power Grid and Kotak Mahindra Bank were the biggest gainers during the early trade.

Dr Reddy's and Sun Pharma were the only laggards.

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

The US markets had ended higher on Thursday.

The BSE benchmark had jumped 1,041.47 points or 1.87 per cent to settle at 56,857.79 on Thursday. The Nifty advanced 287.80 points or 1.73 percent to 16,929.60.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.02 percent to USD 107.12 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors became net buyers in the capital markets as they bought shares worth Rs 1,637.69 crore on Thursday, as per exchange data.

"In India, the big positive for the market is the FIIs reducing their selling substantially and even turning buyers for 8 days this month. The expected outperformance of financials has played out well. Q1 results indicate improving prospects for this segment," said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

(With PTI inputs)

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