The benchmark Sensex on Thursday surged by a little over 215 points in early trade on heavy buying by funds following a strong rally in the global markets.
The Bombay Stock Exchange barometer, which had lost over 165.42 points to close at 40-month low in the previous session on Monday, spurted by 215.15 points, or 2.63 per cent, to 8,375.55 points.
All the sectoral indices, led by banking and metal stocks, were trading in the positive zone with gains up to 3.64 per cent.
The wide-based National Stock Exchange's Nifty rose by 59.70 points, or 2.32 per cent, to 2,632.85 points in opening trade.
Marketmen said fund-based buying in shares, specially in banking stocks, following a smart rally in US markets supported the positive trend on domestic markets.
Expectations of further dip in inflation, to be released by noon, also supported the rise in the stock prices.
US stocks on Wednesday ended marginally higher following a rally a day earlier. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher by 3.91 points at 6,929.36 points after the index touched the 7,000-point psychological level.
The banking sector index of BSE, Bankex, moved up by 3.64 per cent to 3,765.66 points after state-run State Bank of India rose by 2.59 per cent to Rs 920, ICICI Bank by 6.67 per cent at Rs 280.50, HDFC Bank by 3.03 per cent at Rs 823.05, Punjab National Bank by 3.49 per cent at Rs 314.35 and Axis Bank by 4.75 per cent at Rs 294.25.
Among other gainers, Reliance Industries surged by 2.65 per cent to 1,184.45, Reliance Infra by 2.29 per cent to Rs 449.80, RCom by 3.14 per cent to Rs 13.40, Larsen and Toubro by 2.30 per cent to Rs 574.70, Tata Steel by 2.13 per cent to Rs 155.55 and Sterlite Industries by 4.32 per cent to Rs 255.
