Sensex soars over 440 points in early trade; Nifty tests 11,180

New Delhi: Sensex jumped over 440 points in early trade on Monday, tracking gains in index majors ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Reliance Industries amid positive trend in global markets.

The BSE Sensex rose 440.74 points or 1.18 percent to 37,829.40 in early trade while the NSE Nifty jumped 128.75 points or 1.17 percent to 11,179.00.

Major gainers in the Sensex pack were ONGC, Bajaj Finance, NTPC, Powergrid, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finserve, Maruti, LT, Kotak Bank, Tiran and Tata Steel, rising upto 5.22 percent. On the other hand, major losers were Infosys, TCS, falling upto 0.87 percent.

In the previous session, Sensex closed 835.06 points or 2.28 per cent higher at 37,388.66, while Nifty rose 244.70 points or 2.26 per cent to finish at 11,050.25.

Exchange data showed that foreign institutional investors sold equities worth Rs 2,080.21 crore on a net basis on Friday.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.66 per cent lower at USD 42.13 per barrel.

MSCI`s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan advanced 0.5% to 550.47. Chinese shares opened higher and helped to underpin Asian markets after a tentative start, with the blue-chip CSI 300 index up 0.85%. Shanghai`s SSE climbed 0.5%. Elsewhere, Japan`s Nikkei was 0.75% higher, partly on a lower yen, while South Korea`s KOSPI index gained 1.1%, a Reuters report said.