Sensex reclaims 35,000-mark; rises over 200 points on earnings optimism

Mumbai: The benchmark BSE Sensex gained almost 219 points to reclaim the 35,000-mark in early trade on Tuesday as investors widened their positions ahead of quarterly earnings from some bluechip companies amid positive Asian cues.

Moreover, continuous buying by domestic financial institutions also supported the trading sentiment. Rising for the third straight session, the 30-share index gathered 218.81 points, or 0.63 per cent, to 35,083.91 with all the sectoral indices led by auto, realty, consumer durables, capital goods and bankex trading higher by up to 1.15 per cent.

The gauge had rallied 864 points in the previous two sessions. The NSE index Nifty too climbed 60.70 points, or 0.58 per cent, to trade at 10,573.20. Brokers said increased buying by investors ahead of quarterly earnings from Infosys and a few other bluechip companies later in the day and a firming trend at other Asian bourses after a week of heavy losses, buoyed trading sentiment here.

Major gainers were Asian Paint, IndusInd Bank, Adani Ports, M&M, HUL, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank, Maruti Suzuki, SBI, Tata Motors, ONGC, Vedanta Ltd, HDFC Ltd, Tata Steel, Bharti Airtel, Hero MotoCorp, Infosys and Bajaj Auto, rising by up to 2.80 per cent.

Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth Rs 294.78 crore, while foreign institutional investors made purchases worth Rs 67.86 crore on Monday, as per provisional data issued by the stock exchanges.

Among other Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei rose 0.61 per cent, Korea up 0.03 per cent and Singapore gained 0.11 per cent in their late morning trade. Hong Kong's Hang Seng, however, was down 0.24 per cent. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.35 per cent on Monday.