The markets have opened in the green with the Sensex up 130 points at 18,341 and the Nifty starting at 5,502 up 42 points on the back of the fall in the commodity prices especially crude oil. In the broader markets, the smallcap and the midcap indices are up 0.5% each as compared to the Sensex up 1%. This is in stark contrast to the Asian markets which are largely trading in the negative.
Among the sectoral indices, Bankex and Realty indices are leading the opening gains closely followed by IT and Capital Goods.Metal and Health Care indices are the laggards while the Oil % Gas index has gained 0.8%. Bank of India, ICICI Bank up 3% followed by Axis Bank and Indusind Bank up 2% each are the movers in the banking space.
The top gainer among the Sensex stocks apart from banking stocks are Jaiprakash Associates, Tata Motors up 2%, DLF, ONGC, HDFC, BHEL, Mahindra & Mahindra and Reliance Communications are up 1% each.
Sterlite Industries down 3%, Hindalco, Hero Honda and Cipla shedding 1% each are the top Sensex losers.
The market breadth is very positive. Of the total 1546 stocks traded on the BSE, 964 stocks have advanced while 535 declined.
Muthoot finance which debuted today saw a good listing with the stock trading at a premium of 6.29% over its initial public offer prices of Rs 175 per share. So far, the stock has hit a high of Rs 198 and a low of Rs 180.