Mumbai, March 2 (IANS): The benchmark Sensex advanced over 500 points during the early trade on Monday after the worst week of trade since the 2008 financial crisis.

Nifty IT and metal indices gained over two per cent while banking and financial service indices were up over 1 per cent.

At 9.57 a.m.,the Sensex was up 502.16 points or 1.31 per cent. The Nifty gained 185.95 points or 1.66 per cent to trade at 11,387.70.

The global oil benchmark, Brent, jumped 3.5 per cent to $ 51.44 a barrel on Monday after it fell below the $50 a barrel mark last week.

Foreign Portfolio Investors sold Rs 1,428.74 crore worth of stock on Friday while its domestic counterparts bought Rs 7,621.16 crore worth of counters.

The benchmark Sensex had lost 1,448 points in a broad-based sell-off on Friday.

Meanwhile, China reported a fresh spike in coronavirus infections on Sunday and 2 deaths were reported in the US.

The virus has spread to more than 60 countries, prompting the World Health Organization to raise its risk assessment to its highest level.

Worldwide, nearly 3,000 people have been killed and more than 87,000 infected since the coronavirus outbreak in China.