Sensex, Nifty rally over 1% in early trade on firm global trends, gains in RIL

Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty rallied more than 1% in early trade on March 31 in line with firm trends in the global markets and heavy buying in index major Reliance Industries

Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty rallied more than 1% in early trade on March 31 in line with firm trends in the global markets and heavy buying in index major Reliance Industries.

Fresh foreign fund inflows also added to the positive momentum in the equity market.

The 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 705.26 points to 58,665.35 in early trade. The broader NSE Nifty climbed 196.95 points to 17,277.65.

Among the Sensex firms, Reliance Industries emerged as the biggest gainer as it jumped over 3%. HCL Technologies, ICICI Bank, Nestle, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, Power Grid, NTPC, and Axis Bank were the other major winners.

Asian Paints and ITC were the laggards.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Japan, Shanghai, and Hong Kong were quoting in the green. The U.S. markets ended in positive territory on Thursday.

"There are signs of the global equity markets, led by the mother market U.S., coming out of the banking contagion fears. The fact that there have been no further bank failures or major stress in the system, is good news for equity markets," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.