Sensex gains 88 points in opening trade

The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex rose by over 88 points in opening trade today on selective buying by funds and retail investors amid a firming trend on other Asian bourses.

The 30-share barometre, which has lost 56.88 points over the past two sessions, recovered by 88.28 points, or 0.45%, to 19,633.63 in the first few minutes of trade today.

Stocks of power, consumer durables, capital goods, realty, refinery, metals and banking firms led the recovery.

In a similar manner, the wide-based National Stock Exchange Nifty index rose by 23.95 points, or 0.40%, to 5,892.35 points.

Brokers said selective buying by funds and retail investors in stocks having strong fundamentals and a firming trend on other Asian bourses mainly buoyed the trading sentiment here.

In the Asian region, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose by 0.40%, while Japan's Nikkei gained 1.31% in morning trade today. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.93% higher in the previous session on Tuesday.