Sensex rallies over 200 points in early trading, Nifty hovers near 11,800

Equity benchmark indices edged higher during early hours on Monday amid strong global cues coupled with investors awaiting the Union Budget this week.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S & P Sensex was up 222 points at 39,616 while the Nifty 50 jumped 61 points to 11,849. All sectoral indices except PSU bank at the National Stock Exchange were in the positive zone.

Among stocks, Dr Reddy traded 2.3 per cent higher while power utility major NTPC gained over 2 per cent. Indiabulls Housing Finance, Eicher Motors and Tata Steel also moved up over 1.5 per cent.

However, shares of Reliance Home Finance slipped 5.5 per cent after the company failed to repay the principal obligations on its non-convertible debentures held by Reliance Mutual Fund worth Rs 400 crore.

Eveready Industries too fell 5 per cent after Price Waterhouse resigned as its statutory auditor over the weekend, citing inability to analyse the impact of financial support extended by the battery maker to its promoter group entities.

Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum, Ultratech Cement and Bharti Infratel were also in the red.

Meanwhile, Asian stocks rallied as a thaw in US-China trade dispute averted one threat to the global economy.

The United States and China agreed on Saturday to restart trade talks after President Donald Trump offered concessions to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping when the two met on sidelines of G-20 summit in Japan.

The Shanghai Composite gained 1.3 per cent. Japanese shares also jumped though South Korea's benchmark was little changed.

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