Sensex up 73 points at 14,184.21

MUMBAI: The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex gained more than 73 points in early trade on Thursday on sustained buying by funds and retail investors.

The 30-share sensitive index that had gained 69.22 points on Wednesday rose by another 73.45 points at 14,184.21 in the first five minutes of trading on funds buying in heavyweight stocks.

In similar fashion, the National Stock Exchange Index Nifty was up by 20.4 points at 4,110.30.

Stock brokers said apart from funds buying, short-covering by speculators as Thursday being the last day of the January contract in the futures and option (F&O) segment.

Major support came in from stocks such as Reliance Industries, ONGC, BHEL, Larsen and Toubro, Infosys Technologies, Tata Consultancy, Wipro, Reliance Communications, Dr Reddy's Lab, ICICI Bank, ACC, Gujarat Ambuja Cement and Hindustan Lever.