The Indian markets traded over half a per cent up in Thursday's early deals after opening higher for the third straight day.

On the Covid front, India recorded its biggest-ever daily surge of 1.26 lakh Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, according to Worldometer.

Keeping in view the rising virus cases, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with chief ministers of states today to discuss the Covid-19 situation and the ongoing vaccination drive which will be keenly tracked by market participants.

At 9:45 hours, the 30-share benchmark index was trading at 50017.83 up by 356.07 points or by 0.72 % and then NSE Nifty was at 14937.4 up by 118.35 points or by 0.8 %. Sensex touched intraday high of 50061.9 and intraday low of 49832.35 The NSE Nifty touched intraday high of 14939.15 and intraday low of 14864.55

The top gainers of the BSE Sensex pack were Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (Rs. 1022.40,+1.93%), UltraTech Cement Ltd. (Rs. 6870.00,+1.68%), Bajaj Finserv Ltd. (Rs. 9698.05,+1.66%), Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (Rs. 3323.90,+1.63%), Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd. (Rs. 2519.60,+1.52%), among others.

The top losers of the BSE Sensex pack were Oil And Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. (Rs. 103.90,-0.72%), Bajaj Auto Ltd. (Rs. 3660.40,-0.71%), Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd. (Rs. 4680.55,-0.21%), Reliance Industries Ltd. (Rs. 1999.20,-0.18%), among others.

Among the sectors, Metal index was at 15930.71 up by 287.37 points or by 1.84%. Vedanta Ltd. (Rs. 243.80,+2.91%), Hindalco Industries Ltd. (Rs. 361.40,+2.60%), Steel Authority of India (SAIL) Ltd. (Rs. 92.10,+2.56%), National Aluminium Company Ltd. (Rs. 60.15,+1.78%), Tata Steel Ltd. (Rs. 890.00,+1.74%),. Power index was at 2529.55 down by -10.81 points or by -0.43%. Adani Transmission Ltd. (Rs. 1002.15,-5.00%), Adani Green Energy Ltd. (Rs. 1172.05,-1.90%), Thermax Ltd. (Rs. 1381.85,-1.48%), KEC International Ltd. (Rs. 430.00,-0.70%), Adani Power Ltd. (Rs. 99.40,-0.55%),. The Market breadth, indicating the overall strength of the market, was weak. On BSE out of total shares traded 2349 , shares advanced were 1687 while 531 shares declined and 131 were unchanged.