Led by a rally in metal and oil & gas stocks, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex climbed nearly 188 points in early trade Thursday on heavy capital inflows by foreign funds and firm Asian markets.

The 30-share index rose by 187.90 points, or 0.91 per cent, to 20,653.64 points with all sectoral indices trading in the positive zone.

The wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty regained 6,200 level rising by 49.70 points to 6,210.20.

Analysts said continued inflows of overseas funds bolstered by strong quarterly earnings by corporates and a firm trend on the global markets after the Federal Reserve announced it would pump in more stimulus into a struggling US economy, influenced the trading sentiments.

Meanwhile, Coal India Ltd thursday debuted on bourses at a premium of over 28 per cent at Rs 315.20 against its issue price of Rs 245 on the BSE.

In the Asian region, the Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was up by 1.25 per cent, while Japanese Nikkei surged 2.24 per cent in the morning trade. The US dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.24 per cent in Wenesday’s trade.