Mumbai, Aug 17 (IANS): Benchmark indices are trading higher in early morning trade on Wednesday, with Sensex topping the 60,000-mark and Nifty trading above 17,900.

At 11:40 a.m., Sensex was trading at 60,190.62, which was up 348.41 points or 0.58 per cent, and Nifty was trading at 17,925.00, up 99.75 or 0.56 per cent.

Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance, NTPC, Tech Mahindra, Bharti Airtel were top gainers on the Sensex during early morning trade.

"In India, steadily declining inflation, strong growth momentum in the economy and FIIs turning consistent buyers are driving the rally. Even though valuations are high it makes sense to remain invested and buy on dips," said Dr. V.K. Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

In the Sensex, BSE IT and BSE Consumer Durables were major gainers and traded up 0.74 per cent and 0.69 per cent, respectively.

Meanwhile, Asian markets were trading mixed on Wednesday following the Wall Street trades overnight.

Japan's Nikkei 225 was up 0.8 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.1 per cent, and China's Shanghai Composite was down 0.3 per cent.