Market benchmarks started the trade on a positive note on Friday, with the Sensex climbing 448.68 points, mirroring a bullish trend in global equity markets.
The 30-share BSE benchmark advanced 448.68 points to 54,627.14 in early deals. At 10.50 am, the Sensex was quoted at 54,460.96 points, up by 282.50 points. The broader NSE Nifty went higher by 142.6 points to 16,275.50. It is trading now at 16,207.40, up by 74.50 points.
Top gainers, losers
From the Sensex pack, Larsen & Toubro, M&M, Axis Bank, NTPC, UltraTech Cement, ICICI Bank, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies and Kotak Mahindra Bank were the major gainers in early trade.
Asian Paints, Hindustan Unilever, IndusInd Bank, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finance and Titan were among the laggards.
In Asia, markets in Tokyo, Shanghai, Seoul and Hong Kong were trading in the green.
The US markets had ended higher on Thursday.
"The present rally is driven partly by expectations that given the steady decline in commodity prices, inflation will start showing a declining trend enabling central banks to go a bit slow on hiking rates, and partly by short covering," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude gained 0.13 per cent to $104.79 per barrel.
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers on Thursday, offloading shares worth Rs 925.22 crore, as per exchange data.