PTI
 
Mumbai, Oct 31: Continuing its rising streak for the third straight session on Friday, the benchmark Sensex moved up by over 665 points in early trade on massive buying by funds and retail investors largely on the back of overnight gains in the US markets.

The 30-share index, which gathered nearly 535 points in the past two sessions, shot up by another 665.52 points, or 7.35% at 9,710.03 on renewed buying in the stocks of banking, metals, oil and gas and realty sectors.

The wide-based National Stock Exchange's Nifty also rose by 185.50 points, or 6.88%, at 2,882.55 points.

At 10:00am, Sensex was up 398.31 points at 9,542.82 and Nifty rose by 118 points at 2,815.25 in opening trade.

Easing inflation, which dipped below 11% mark for the first time in four months to 10.68%, and appreciating Indian rupee against US currency also buoyed the trading sentiments, marketmen said.

They said strong rally in the past two sessions on the US stock market following a 50 basis points cut in interest rates by US FED, sparked buying by foreign funds on the domestic bourses.

Meanwhile, players shrugged off a weak trend in other Asian bourses, they said.

Among prominent gainers were Reliance Industries, which shot up by Rs 99.60, or 8.27%, at Rs 1,304, while largest state-run lender State Bank of India rose by Rs 62.25, or 5.766% at Rs 1,163.

Besides, other gainers were Infosys Technologies, DLF Ltd, BHEL, Larsen and Toubro, Bharti Airtel, RCom, Reliance Infra and Satyam Computers.

Meanwhile, the US Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed by 2.11% or nearly 190 points on Thursday evening.