Mumbai, Nov 6 The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex today soared by 208 points in early trade on continued buying by funds, driven mainly by the firming global trends after a better-than-expected US economic data.

The 30-share BSE index, shot up by 208.47 points to 16,272.37 in the opening trade as all the sectoral indices were trading in the positive zone with gains up to 3.22 per cent.

The wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty also gained 65.50 points to trade higher at 4,831.05.

The brokers said the pick up in buying by the foreign funds, bolstered by the firming trends in the other Asian markets in line with the overnight gains on the US market on the positive jobs data.

Besides, the stocks of public sector undertakings remained in a good demand for the second straight session after the government's decision to increase the public holding in all the listed profitable Central PSUs to 10 per cent.

The major gainers were Infosys Technologies by 0.58 per cent to Rs. 2,236, Wipro by 1.86 per cent to Rs 609.45, Reliance Industries by 1.16 per cent to Rs 1,962.25, ITC Ltd by 0.52 per cent to Rs 253.70 and Maruti Suzuki by 1.63 per cent to Rs 1,513.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was up by1.88 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei by 0.97 per cent higher in the morning trade today. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 2.08 percent higher on November 5. (ANI)