Sensex climbs 640 points; Nifty tops 22,300-level in early trade

New Delhi: Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty climbed in early trade on Monday amid a rally in Asian markets, decline in Brent crude oil prices and buying by foreign investors.

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Extending its previous day's rebound, the 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 639.85 points to 73,728.18 in early trade. The NSE Nifty went up 190.1 points to 22,337.10.

From the Sensex basket, UltraTech Cement, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finance, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Steel and Tata Motors were the major gainers. HDFC Bank, JSW Steel, Mahindra & Mahindra and ITC were the laggards.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, and Hong Kong were trading in the positive territory while Shanghai quoted lower.

"The biggest positive for the market in the near-term is that the feared escalation in the Israel-Iran tension is unlikely to happen. The decline in Brent crude from $90 to $87 is a confirmation of this expected de-escalation," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) turned buyers on Friday and they bought equities worth Rs 129.39 crore, according to exchange data.

The BSE benchmark climbed 599.34 points or 0.83 percent to settle at 73,088.33 on Friday. The NSE Nifty jumped 151.15 points or 0.69 percent to 22,147.

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