Stock markets surge in early trade; Sensex jumps over 700 points

Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty jumped in early trade on Monday, driven by buying in blue-chips Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank and foreign fund inflows.

A sharp rally in global markets also added to the markets' optimism during the initial trade.

The 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 704.37 points to 84,656.56 in early trade. The 50-share NSE Nifty surged 216.35 points to 25,926.20.

From the Sensex firms, Reliance Industries climbed over 2 per cent after the firm on Friday reported a 9.6 per cent year-on-year rise in net profit for the September quarter, driven by strong performance in its consumer-facing retail and telecom businesses and a recovery in its core oil-to-chemicals segment.

HDFC Bank traded 1.54 per cent higher after the firm on Saturday reported a 10 per cent jump in consolidated net profit for September quarter at Rs 19,610.67 crore.

Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Infosys and Bajaj Finserv were also among the gainers.

However, ICICI Bank, UltraTech Cement, Trent and Tata Steel were among the laggards.

In Asian markets, South Korea's Kospi, Japan's Nikkei 225 index, Shanghai's SSE Composite index and Hong Kong's Hang Seng were trading higher.

US markets ended in the positive territory on Friday.