Mumbai, Jan 7 (IANS): The Sensex advanced over 240 points on Monday afternoon following Asian markets on signs of an easing trade tension.

Talks between US and China are scheduled to be held on Monday and Tuesday.

Barring the healthcare sector, all the other sectorial stocks traded comfortably in the green on both the NSE and the BSE.

At 1.35 p.m., the Nifty50 traded at 10,805.55, higher by 78.20 points or 0.73 per cent from the previous close of 10,727.35.

The S&P BSE Sensex, which had opened at 35,971.18, traded at 35,937.14, higher by 242.04 points or 0.68 per cent from its previous close of 35,695.10

So far, it has touched an intra-day high of 36,076.95 and a low of 35,895.78.

The Indian currency, however, was trading flat at Rs 69.73 per US dollar from its previous close of 69.72.

Earlier, concerns of slowdown were fuelled by outcome of weak manufacturing data from major economies like the US, China and India. To add to this was the cut in the financial forecast by tech major Apple, citing the US-China trade tension among one of the reasons.

The trend was only reversed after news of trade talk between US-China came on Friday and has managed to keep the investor sentiments upbeat since then.