Nifty above 5,900

Index heavyweights, financials lead gains

Benchmark share indices are trading near their day highs in late morning deals on Wednesday, amid positive cues from Asia, led by index heavyweights and bank shares.

Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama is cutting short his Hawaiian holiday to leave for Washington on Wednesday to address the unfinished "fiscal cliff" negotiations with Congress, the White House said on Tuesday.

At 11:53 AM, the Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex index surged 167 points to 19,422 and the National Stock Exchange's Nifty-50 index was up 48 points at 5,903.

Asian markets continue to trade with gains on optimism of further monetary policy by Japanese central bank to support flagging growth in the world's third-biggest economy.

Japan's Nikkei was up 1.3% and Straits Times was up 0.4%. However, China's Shanghai Composite was trading marginally lower.

The sectoral indices on the BSE were led by Capital Goods up 1.4% followed by Realty, Power, Consumer Durables, Metal, Oil and Gas and Bankex.

Among Sensex shares, Reliance Industries was up 1.1% and Bharti Airtel was up 2.9%. In the financial space, ICICI Bank was up 1.3%, HDFC was up 1.1% while HDFC Bank and SBI was up 0.8% each.

In the capital goods space, L&T was up 1.8% and Bharat Heavy Electricals was up 1.3%.

Metal shares were also among the top gainers, Sterlite, Jindal Steel, Tata Steel and Hindalco were up 0.6-2% each.

In the broader market, Fortis Healthcare is trading higher by 4% at Rs 118 on the NSE on reports that the promoters may divest their holding in the company to meet the Sebi's deadline for listed companies to have at least 25% of equity held by non-promoters before June 2013.

Jindal Stainless is trading higher by over 4% at Rs 75.05 after the company said that its shareholders approve issuing of 27.1 million shares amounting of Rs 200 crore to the exiting promoter group on preferential basis.

The BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were up 0.6-0.7% each.

The overall breadth is strong as 1,433 stocks advanced while 975 stocks declined on the BSE.