Equity investors became richer by Rs 2 lakh crore in morning trade on Friday as a rally in stocks propelled benchmark BSE Sensex to scale the 71,000 mark for the first time.

Optimistic trends in global markets after the US Federal Reserve kept its key interest rate unchanged and signalled rate cuts next year along with continuous foreign fund inflows have been fuelling the rally in stocks.

Rallying for the third day running, the 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 569.88 points to reach its all-time high of 71,084.08 during the morning deals.

The market capitalisation (mcap) of BSE-listed firms hit a record high of Rs 357 lakh crore in early trade.

Benchmark Sensex surged past the 70,000 level for the first time in early trade on Monday.

Among the Sensex firms, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro and JSW Steel were the major gainers during the morning deals.

Nestle, Bharti Airtel, Axis Bank ITC were among the laggards.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong were trading with gains.

The US markets ended higher on Thursday.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 3,570.07 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data.

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