Equity benchmark indices made a positive start on Monday with the Sensex climbing 563 points in early trade amid firm global market trends and fresh foreign fund inflow.

Continuing its rally for the third day running, the 30-share BSE benchmark climbed 563.09 points to 60,522.94 in early trade. On similar lines, the broader NSE Nifty advanced 161.55 points to 17,948.35.

From the Sensex pack, Tech Mahindra, Maruti, Dr Reddy's, HCL Technologies, Axis Bank, Infosys, Titan, Hindustan Unilever and Mahindra & Mahindra were the major winners.

NTPC and Tata Steel were the only laggards.

Elsewhere in Asia, markets in Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong traded higher, while Shanghai quoted lower.

Wall Street had ended significantly higher on Friday.

"Technically the market is poised to continue the ongoing rally aided by support from the mother market US... The fact that FPIs have turned buyers during the last 2 days is another positive," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

The BSE benchmark climbed 203.01 points or 0.34 per cent to settle at 59,959.85 on Friday. The Nifty advanced 49.85 points or 0.28 per cent to end at 17,786.80.

International oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.52 per cent lower at USD 95.27 per barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were buyers on Friday as they bought shares worth Rs 1,568.75 crore, as per exchange data.