Sensex surges 106 pts in early trade on F&O expiry

The benchmark BSE Sensex climbed

about 106 points in early trade today on widespread gains as

retail investors and domestic institutional investors indulged

in buying.

Short-covering of outstanding positions -- today being

the last session of February series expiry in the derivatives

segment -- kept the ongoing rising trend strong.

The 30-share index, which had gained 709.15 points in the

previous five sessions, rallied by 105.54 points, or 0.37 per

cent, at 28,970.25.

Technology, realty, consumer durables, IT, oil and gas and

healthcare sector stocks were leading the rally, which lifted

sentiments.

Shares of telecom major Bharti Airtel zoomed 10 per cent

after it announced the decision to acquire Telenor India

assets.

Other telecom shares such as Idea Cellular rose 7 per

cent, Reliance Communication gained 3.92 per cent and Tata

Teleservices went up by 4.52 per cent.

The NSE Nifty was also trading higher by 30.25 points,

or 0.33 per cent, at 8,957.15.

Brokers said that the market mood remained buoyant,

bolstered by retail as well as domestic institutional

investors' buying coupled with covering-up of short positions

by speculators.

Howver, trend at other Asian markets was weak with Hong

Kong's Hang Seng falling 0.43 per cent, Japan's Nikkei

shedding 0.35 per cent and Shanghai Composite index falling by

0.39 per cent in early trade today.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.16 per cent

up yesterday.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)