Equity benchmark indices climbed in early trade on Monday amid rally in Asian markets along with buying in index heavyweights IT counters and Reliance Industries.

The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 146.98 points to 61,876.66 in early trade. The NSE Nifty went up by 55.3 points to 18,258.70.

Among the Sensex firms, NTPC, Power Grid, Wipro, Infosys, Sun Pharma, Larsen & Toubro, Tech Mahindra, Reliance Industries, Tata Consultancy Services, Titan, ITC and State Bank of India were the major gainers.

IndusInd Bank, Bharti Airtel, Nestle, Asian Paints, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank were the laggards.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong were trading in the positive territory.

The US market had ended marginally lower on Friday.

Meanwhile, global oil benchmark Brent crude declined 0.87 per cent to USD 74.92 per barrel.

The Sensex climbed 297.94 points or 0.48 per cent to settle at 61,729.68 on Friday. The Nifty advanced 73.45 points or 0.41 per cent to end at 18,203.40.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 113.46 crore on Friday after remaining buyers for a number of days, according to exchange data.

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