Mumbai, Jul 17: Equity benchmark Sensex jumped over 200 points in early trade on Friday tracking gains in index-heavyweights HDFC twins, HUL, Reliance Industries and ICICI Bank. The 30-share BSE Sensex was trading 217.95 points, or 0.60 per cent, higher at 36,689.63.

Also Read | Congress Suspends MLAs Bhanwar Lal Sharma & Vishvendra Singh From Primary Membership of Party: Live News Breaking and Coronavirus Updates on July 17, 2020.

Similarly, the NSE Nifty rose 71.50 points, or 0.67 per cent, to 10,811.45. Tata Steel was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rallying around 4 per cent, followed by ONGC, HCL Tech, Bajaj Finance, HUL, HDFC duo, Reliance Industries and ICICI Bank.

Also Read | India's Coronavirus Tally Crosses 1 Million Mark With the Highest Single-Day Spike of 34,956 COVID-19 Cases And 687 Deaths.

On the other hand, Infosys, TCS, M&M and Tech Mahindra were among the laggards.

In the previous session, the BSE barometer ended 419.87 points, or 1.16 per cent, higher at 36,471.68, and the broader Nifty surged 121.75 points, or 1.15 per cent, to end at 10,739.95.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in the capital market on Thursday, offloading equities worth Rs 1,091.08 crore, provisional exchange data showed.

According to traders, positive earnings reports from key index components led to stock-specific buying, lifting benchmarks in early trade. Gains were, however, capped as spike in coronavirus cases weighed on investor sentiment.

Bourses in Hong Kong and Seoul were trading on a positive note, while Shanghai and Tokyo were in the red. Stock exchanges on Wall Street ended with losses in overnight session.

The number of COVID-19 cases around the world linked to the disease has crossed 1.37 crore. In India, the number of infections spiked over 10 lakh, according to the health ministry. Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude futures fell 0.16 per cent to USD 43.30 per barrel.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)