Mumbai, May 23 (PTI) The benchmark BSE Sensex rallied nearly 800 points and the NSE Nifty soared over 200 points to hit their respective record highs in early trade Thursday, as counting of votes for the Lok Sabha election began.

According to traders, investor sentiment was boosted by initial trends that suggested a win for the ruling NDA.

Amid market euphoria, the rupee also appreciated 26 paise to 69.40 against the US dollar in opening trade.

The 30-share index zoomed over 2 per cent to hit an intra-day high of 39,901.59. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty too spurted more than 2 per cent to touch a record of 11,968.95.

In the previous session, the Sensex ended 140.41 points, or 0.36 per cent, higher at 39,110.21; and the broader NSE Nifty rose 28.80 points, or 0.25 per cent, to 11,737.90.

Top Sensex gainers in morning trade include IndusInd Bank, SBI, L&T, PowerGrid, Yes Bank, Kotak Bank, ICICI Bank, RIL, HDFC, Bharti Airtel and Axis Bank, rallying up to 7 per cent.

While, Vedanta, ONGC, Bajaj Auto and Sun Pharma slipped up to 1.92 per cent.

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors sold equity worth ₹ 965.02 crore on Wednesday, while domestic institutional investors sold shares to the tune of ₹ 157.75 crore, provisional data available with stock exchanges showed.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in China, Japan and Korea were trading on a negative note in their respective early sessions.

Brent crude, the global benchmark, was trading at 70.58 per barrel, lower by 0.58 per cent.

Stock market rally after early election trends lifts indices and rupee, driven by sector gains and investor sentiment. Early electoral trends suggesting a likely ruling coalition outcome triggered a sharp domestic market rally with benchmark indices reaching intra-day highs and the rupee strengthening; the rally was led by banking, industrial and telecom stocks while some commodity- and pharma-related shares slipped, amid provisional net equity selling by both foreign and domestic institutional investors and mixed external market and commodity cues.