Markets climb in early trade

Mumbai, Jan 18 (PTI) Equity benchmarks climbed in initial trade on Wednesday, extending their previous day’s rally, amid buying in index heavyweight HDFC twins and foreign funds inflow.

The 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex climbed 107.28 points to 60,763. The broader NSE Nifty went up by 37.25 points to 18,090.55.

From the Sensex pack, Tata Steel, Wipro, HDFC Bank, HCL Technologies, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bharti Airtel, HDFC, Titan, ITC and Bajaj Finance were the prominent gainers.

Tata Motors, UltraTech Cement, Mahindra & Mahindra, Reliance Industries, State Bank of India and ICICI Bank were the laggards.

Elsewhere in Asia, equity markets in Tokyo quoted in the green, while Seoul, Shanghai and Hong Kong traded lower.

Markets in the US had ended mostly lower on Tuesday.

The Sensex had rallied 562.75 points or 0.94 per cent to settle at 60,655.72 on Tuesday. The Nifty had climbed 158.45 points or 0.89 per cent to end at 18,053.30.

International oil benchmark Brent crude jumped 0.73 per cent to USD 86.55 per barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) turned buyers on Tuesday after unabated outflows for the past many days. They bought shares worth Rs 211.06 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.