Mumbai: After two sessions of losses, the benchmark BSE Sensex recovered by over 71 points to regain the 26,000-mark in early trade on Friday on emergence of buying by funds and retail investors amid a firming trend in other Asian markets.

Besides, encouraging earnings reported by Hero MotoCorp also influenced market sentiments.

The 30-share index, which had lost 384.73 points in the previous two sessions, rebounded by 71.37 points, or 0.27 per cent, to 26,070.71, with FMCG, power, capital goods and healthcare stocks, leading the recovery.

Also, the National Stock Exchange index Nifty edged higher by 13.40 points, or 0.17 per cent, to 7,761.60.

Brokers said besides better corporate earnings, a firming trend in the Asian region after the American and European shares stabilised in response to upbeat US data, influenced the sentiments here.

Stocks of country's largest two-wheeler maker, Hero MotoCorp, rose 1.17 per cent to Rs 2,824.45 after the company reported 58.62 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 763 crore for the second quarter ended September 30.

Among other Asian markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up by 0.21 per cent while Japan's Nikkei rose 0.39 per cent in early trade today.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.15 per cent in Thursday's trade.--PTI