Mumbai, April 16 (PTI): The benchmark Sensex shot up by another 212 points in early trade this morning largely on the back of sustained buying of funds in technology sector stocks in anticipation of robust earnings by Tata Consultancy slated to announce its March quarter results later today.

Continuing its upward march the BSE-30 share index, Sensex, which climbed 270.27 points in the previous trading session, gathered another 212.51 points at 13,596.59 points in the first five minutes of trading, which can be attributed to sustained rally in IT, Oil and banking sector stocks.

The wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty, was also up by 59.50 points at 3976.85.

Stock brokers said technology sector stocks continued to remain centre of brisk activity on hopes that after Infosys another technology giant Tata Consultancy might post strong earnings.

They said firming global markets and Inflation, which fell back to 5.74 per cent for the week ended March 31 from 6.39 per cent in the previous week, also positively influenced the trading sentiment.

Major gainers were Infosys, TCS, Wipro, Satyam Computer, Reliance Industries, Reliance Capital, Reliance Communication, Larsen and Toubro, ITC, Hindustan Lever, Ranbaxy and Dr Reddy's Laboratories.