Market benchmark Sensex surged over 400 points in early trade on Wednesday, tracking gains in index heavyweights Reliance Industries, Bajaj Finance and ICICI Bank amid a largely positive trend in global equities.

Extending the previous day's rally, the 30-share BSE benchmark was trading 427.26 points higher at 58,416.56. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty jumped 126.9 points to 17,442.40.

From the 30-share pack, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Sun Pharma, Bajaj Finance, IndusInd Bank, Reliance Industries Limited, SBI, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank were the lead gainers in early trade.

In contrast, Bharti Airtel, Asian Paints, Maruti Suzuki India and Infosys were among the laggards.

In the previous trade, the BSE Sensex closed up by 696.81 points or 1.22 per cent at 57,989.30. The Nifty climbed 197.90 points or 1.16 per cent to finish at 17,315.50.

Equity exchanges in Seoul, Hong Kong and Tokyo were trading higher in mid-session deals, while Shanghai quoted marginally lower.

Stock exchanges in the US ended largely higher in the overnight session.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude jumped 1.57 per cent to USD 117.3 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers as they bought shares worth Rs 384.48 crore on Tuesday, according to stock exchange data.

"There are two significant trends in the market now. One, 17,000 Nifty has now become a strong technical support for the market. The sharp bounce from the 17,000 levels yesterday indicates that this is a strong support level now.

"Two, there is heavy delivery-based buying in high-quality stocks like TCS, Infosys, ITC and select financials. This indicates the return of risk-on in the market," according to V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

There is logic in the argument that markets have not discounted the negative impact of the war, rising inflation and hawkish central banks, he added.

But, bull markets are known to climb many walls of worry, Vijayakumar said.