Markets climb in early trade; extend rally for 2nd day status
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