Markets extend early gains

The markets continue to trade positive after touching two and half year highs yesterday although Asian markets have pared early gains. The Nifty has added 18 points at 5485 and the Sensex has risen 73 points at 18290.

Asian stocks are trading mixed; the Nikkei is down 109 points at 9,599, the Hang Seng is down 26 points at 21,524 and the Shanghai Composite is down 15 points at 2622 ahead of some of key earnings today.

The realty index which surged in the last lap of the trade yesterday continues its upward move and is up 1%, led by gains in Anant Raj Industries, up 4.2% at Rs 122, Indiabulls Real Estate is up 1.42% at Rs 171.4, Peninsula Land & Unitech, up over 1% each.

IT is the other leading sectoral gainer, up 0.7%, led by midcap IT companies such as HCL Tech (up 2% at Rs 410.50), Rolta India (up 1.5% at Rs 178.25) and Patni Computer (up 1% at Rs 473). TCS has pared some of its gains, though, and is now up 0.5% at Rs 874. The stock had touched an all-time high yesterday after the New Jersey based outsourcing company Cognizant reported upbeat results.

The consumer durable index is a laggard in trade, with Whirpool and Titan down 1.5% at Rs 269 and Rs 2780 respectively.

Among the frontline stocks, Maruti is up 2.1% at Rs 1239, SBI is up 1.9% at Rs 2644 and Bharti Airtel is up 1.2% at Rs 327.

Among the frontline losers, Hero Honda is down 0.8% at Rs 1873, ICICI Bank is down 0.8% at Rs 962.

The market breadth is positive; for every 1673 advancing stocks, there are 731 declines.