Sensex gains 170 points in early trading ahead of the Budget

Mumbai: Scrips opened on a firm note on Friday ahead of the interim Union Budget with the Sensex gaining over 170 points.

At 10:00 am, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 170 points at 36,426. The Nifty 50 was also ruling 48 points higher at 10,879.

Bharti Airtel, Hero Motorcorp and Bajaj Finance were trading higher but Vedanta tumbled 18 percent.

Banking stocks including Bank of India, Oriental Bank of Commerce and Bank of Maharashtra also gained.

In currency markets, the Indian rupee opened higher at 71 per dollar against the previous close 71.08.

Meanwhile, Asian indices were mostly showing gains on the back of flows into equities.

[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]