Sensex up over 250 points; ICICI Bank, Infosys top gainers

Markets opened higher, amid firm global cues, with bank and IT shares leading the gains in early trades.

At 9:30AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 269 points at 27,395 and the 50-share Nifty was up 77 points at 8,236.

After receiving cabinet approval, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Constitutional Amendment Bill is likely to be introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday.

Meanwhile, selling by foreign institutional investors continued and they were net sellers in Indian equities worth Rs 874.89 crore on Thursday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

Asian markets have extended gains from yesterday as the boost generated by US Fed's reiteration to maintain its stance on key-interest rates continues to propel global equity markets. Japanese Nikkei has gained around 2% ahead of the Bank of Japan policy meeting scheduled to be held on Friday.

Overnight, US markets ended higher for second straight session boosted by the surge in technology shares. Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasadaq Composite indices closed the day with gains of around 1.6% each.

SBI, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank were among the top Sensex gainers.

L&T was up over 1% as the company has completed the definitive investment agreement with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) for investment of Rs 2,000 crore in the engineering firm.

IT shares firmed up on the back of robust first quarter earnings from Accenture. The global IT major has upped its revenue growth guidance for FY15. Infosys, TCS and Wipro were up over 1.5% each.

Among other shares, Crompton Greaves has rallied 6% to Rs 190 in early morning deals on BSE after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said that foreign institutional investors are now allowed to invest up to 100% of the paid up capital in the company.

SpiceJet was up 13% after the cash-strapped airline limped back towards normalcy by operating nearly 230 flights on Thursday.

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were up 1.2-1.5% each.

Market breadth was positive with 1,216 gainers and 228 losers on the BSE.