Markets climb in early trade; extend rally for 2nd day status
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The stock market continued its upward momentum in the morning session, building on the gains from the previous day. The benchmark indices rose more than 1% each, led by banking, IT and metal stocks. The positive global cues and the easing of covid-19 restrictions in some states also boosted the investor sentiment. The BSE Sensex was trading at 52,734.36, up 590.36 points or 1.13%, while the NSE Nifty was at 15,837.85, up 178.85 points or 1.14%. The broader markets also outperformed the main indices, with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rising 1.5% and 1.8%, respectively. Among the sectoral indices, the BSE Bankex was the top gainer, up 2.2%, followed by BSE IT (up 1.9%) and BSE Metal (up 1.8%). The BSE Realty and BSE Auto indices were also up over 1% each. The only laggard was the BSE Healthcare index, which was down 0.2%. The top gainers on the Sensex were HDFC Bank (up 3%), Infosys (up 2.7%), ICICI Bank (up 2.5%), Tata Steel (up 2.4%) and Axis Bank (up 2.3%). The top losers were