Domestic stock benchmarks opened higher on Monday ahead of UK GDP and US inflation data release for July. Infosys (NSE 2.09%), Reliance Industries (NSE 0.92%), TCS (NSE 1.26%) and financial stocks led the gains.

At 9:17 am, the BSE Sensex was up 250.79 points, or 0.42%, at 60,043.93. The Nifty50 was trading at 17,914.40, up 81.05 points or 0.45%.

V K Vijayakumar, the chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services (NSE 0.74%), said the most important bullish factor leading to and sustaining the Indian market’s outperformance is the strong growth recovery India is currently experiencing.

“RBI’s report that bank credit growth is now running at 15.5% supports this fact. The Bank Nifty outperforming the Nifty by 11% reflects this strong undercurrent in the banking sector. Although valuations are high, it appears that this rally has more steam to grow,” said Vijayakumar.

Among Sensex shares, Tech Mahindra rose 2.86% to Rs 1,158.80. Tata Steel, Infosys, HCL Tech and M&M rose 1.65%, 1.33%, 1.04% and 0.93%, respectively. Wipro, TCS and Dr Reddys Labs rose 0.98%, 0.83% and 0.73%, respectively.

Sector-wise, the Nifty IT index soared 1.25%, while Nifty Metal gained 1.07%. The Nifty Midcap50 and Smallcap50 gained 0.4% and 0.86%, respectively.

The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major world currencies, was down 0.23% at 108.74.

US stocks closed higher on Friday, with the Nasdaq, Dow Jones and S&P 500 up 2.11%, 1.19% and 1.53%, respectively.