Sensex stock broker Nifty
[Representational Image] In Picture: Brokers trade on their computer terminals at a stock brokerage firm in Mumbai.Reuters

Benchmark stock indices surged by nearly 137 points in late morning trade on Tuesday due to continued buying by domestic institutional investors amid expectations of positive GDP data to be released later in the day. The BSE Sensex was trading at 26,536 at around 1:50 pm. Consumer durables, capital goods and banking were the best sectoral indices.

Top Sensex gainers were ICICI bank, Larsen & Turbo, Maruti Suzuki and Adani ports. The rupee firmed up 9 paise to 68.56 against the dollar in early trade today, rising for the second straight day on increased selling of the US currency by exporters and banks.

"The US markets closed higher on Tuesday but below record highs as better-than expected economic reports were tempered by a drop in oil prices. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1%, to close at 19,122. The S&P 500 index advanced 0.1% to finish at 2,205 with health-care and real-estate the strongest sectors. Oil companies weighed on the London market as energy shares were hit by a fall in oil prices ahead of the meeting of OPEC oil producers on Wednesday. At close, the benchmark FTSE 100 index was down 0.4% at 6,772." a report by Angel Broking said while observing the aforementioned positive global cues.

Top Sensex and Nifty gainers included Maruti Suzuki, ICICI Bank, Hindustan Unilever, Induslnd Bank and losers included Power Grid Corporation, Coal India, Idea Cellular and Infosys.

Maruti Suzuki is trading 2.24 percent higher at Rs 5,205, ICICI bank is trading 2.03 percent higher at Rs 260.95 and Hindustan Unilever gained 1.55 to trade at Rs 846.95.

India Q2 gross domestic product data is due for release on Wednesday.