Mumbai: The benchmark Sensex rose by over 200 points in the early trade on 1 December, on buying by funds and retail investors on the oil and gas and banking counters.

The Bombay Stock Exchange barometer, which had gained 66 points in the previous session, rose by 200.71 points or 2.12% to 9,293.43 points.

The wide-based National Stock Exchange’s Nifty gained 58.70 points, or 2.09 per cent at 2,813.80 points.

Marketmen said investors welcomed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s decision to take over the finance portfolio.

They said gradual recovery on the US markets, which ended 1.17 per cent higher, on Friday too had positive impact on the trading sentiments here.

Among major gainers on the BSE, Reliance Industries surged by 2.35% at Rs1,160, while the country’s largest lender State Bank of India gained 2.32% at Rs1,113.

ICICI Bank rose 2.5% at Rs350 and HDFC Bank soared by 2.55% at Rs943.90.

Other gainers which supported the Sensex were BHEL, Tata Steel, Larsen and Toubro, Bharti Airtel, Rcom, JP Associates, Tata Motors, Mahindra and Mahindra, HDFC Ltd, Infosys Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services, Satyam Computers and Wipro.