Mumbai: The benchmark Sensex staged a strong comeback in early trade today gaining over 149 points on widespread buying by participants amid positive Asian cues. The 30-share index was trading higher by 149.05 points or 0.46 percent at 32,746.23. All the sectoral indices led by capital goods, power, oil & gas and PSU were trading in the green with gains of up to 1.20 percent.   

The gauge had lost 205 points yesterday following the Reserve Bank's decision to leave interest rates unchanged and raised the inflation forecast for the remainder of the current fiscal to 4.3-4.7 percent. Also, the NSE Nifty recovered by 49.25 points or 0.49 percent to 10,093.35.   Major gainers were Tata Steel, L&T, Hero MotoCorp, Adani Ports, Bajaj Auto, Maruti Suzuki, Hindustan Unilever, Bharti Airtel, NTPC, Power Grid, Axis Bank, SBI and ICICI Bank, rising up to 1.32 percent     

Brokers said buying by domestic institutional investors (DIIs) and a firm trend in other Asian bourses improved the market sentiment. DIIs had bought shares worth Rs 995.11 crore, while foreign funds sold shares to the tune of Rs 1,217.92 crore yesterday, the provisional exchange data showed. In the Asian region, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.10 percent while Japan's Nikkei gained 1.27 percent in early trade today. Shanghai Composite Index, however, shed 0.52 percent. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.16 percent down yesterday. PTI