Mumbai, May 31: The BSE Sensex rebounded over 246 points to quote above the 35,000-mark in opening trade today, tracking a firm trend in the global markets amid sustained buying by domestic institutional investors. Short-covering of bets, today being the last session of May expiry in the derivatives segment, kept the overall tempo up. Optimistic buying by participants ahead of GDP data scheduled to be released later today too buoyed trading sentiments, brokers said.

The 30-share index, which had lost 259.37 points in the previous two sessions, recovered by 246.06 points, or 0.70 percent, at 35,152.17.

The NSE Nifty too was trading higher by 61.75 points, or 0.58 percent, at 10,676.10.

Meanwhile, the Met department yesterday said the entire country is likely to get normal monsoon this year, except the east and northeast India, which is likely to witness "below normal" rainfall. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth Rs 492.46 crore, while foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net of Rs 1,286.91 crore yesterday, provisional data showed.

Major gainers were Coal India, HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel, HUL, ONGC, Tata Steel, L&T, Kotak Bank, HDFC Ltd, NTPC, Wipro, RIL, Infosys and M&M, with gains of up to 2.81 percent. However, shares of the country's largest private lender ICICI Bank plunged 1.49 percent after the bank ordered an independent probe into allegations against its MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar's dealing with certain borrowers.

Brokers said continued pumping of funds by DIIs and a firming trend at over Asian bourses, tracking recoveries in the US and Europe as fears of a political crisis in Italy abated, spurred a fresh round of buying on the domestic bourses. Globally, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.95 percent, Japan's Nikkei gained 0.60 percent while Shanghai Composite index rallied 1.20 percent in early trade today. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 1.26 per cent higher yesterday.

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