Equity benchmarks extended their rally on Monday, with the Sensex jumping over 693 points in early trade, aided by heavy buying in index majors Reliance Industries and Infosys amid a firm trend in Asian equities.

The 30-share BSE Sensex rallied 693.56 points to 55,578.22 in early trade. The broader NSE Nifty jumped 213.75 points to 16,566.20.

From the Sensex pack, Infosys, Titan, HCL Technologies, Larsen & Toubro, Reliance Industries, UltraTech Cement, Wipro, TCS and HDFC were the major gainers in early trade.

In contrast, Dr Reddy’s was the only laggard from the 30-share pack.

Elsewhere in Asia, markets in Seoul, Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong were trading in the green.

Stock markets in the US ended significantly higher on Friday. “Asian markets are trading on a positive side as investors are following trends of the US markets,” said Mohit Nigam, Head – PMS, Hem Securities.

The Sensex rallied 632.13 points or 1.17 per cent to settle at 54,884.66 on Friday. The Nifty jumped 182.30 points or 1.13 per cent to end at 16,352.45.

International oil benchmark Brent crude gained 0.48 % to USD 120 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors continued their selling spree as they offloaded shares worth Rs 1,943.10 crore on Friday, as per stock exchange data.