Continuing its firm trend for the third straight session on Monday, the benchmark index rose by over 86 points in early trade on the Bombay Stock exchange, driven by rally in blue-chip stocks on buying by foreign funds.
The BSE 30-share index, Sensex, which had closed over 198 points higher on Friday, was up by 86.32 points at 12,822.74, another new high in the first five minutes of trading.
Similarly, the Nifty index on the National Stock Exchange gained 26.60 points at 3,702.65.
Stock brokers said apart from firming global markets, expectations of encouraging quarterly results, also buoyed the trading sentiments.
The major gainers were ACC, Bajaj Auto, BHEL, Reilance Energy, Reliance Industries, Dr Reddy's, HDFC Bank, ITC Ltd, Infosys Technologies, ONGC, Tata Consultancy, Wipro, Tata Steel, Tata Motors and State Bank of India.