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Markets continue to edge higher in the noon deals amid volatility on account of short covering in beaten down financial stocks after the rupee strengthened against the US dollar. At 1400 hrs, the Sensex was up 130 points at 18,795 and the Nifty gained 44 points to trade at 5,563.
In broader markets, both the midcap and smallcap indices advanced over 1% each and outperformed the BSE benchmark index which gained 0.7%.
Meanwhile, the Indian rupee firmed against the US dollar. The local currency was up 21 paise at 61.09 against the dollar in noon trade on selling of the US currency by banks and exporters amidst volatile equity market.
In international markets, strong trade data from China eased concerns about the global economic outlook on Thursday, supporting European and Asian shares.
The better tone ended three days of steady falls in MSCI's world equity index caused by expectations the Federal Reserve could soon start to wind down its stimulus program, which has driven this year's rally in stocks.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.8% after the Chinese data, recovering more than half of Wednesday's losses, while Europe's shares edged up about 0.1% in early dealing.
In contrast, Tokyo's Nikkei shed 1.6%, extending Wednesday's 4% drop.
Back home, all the sectoral indices were in the green, except Oil & Gas and Health Care index which shed 0.4% each.
Among the ones leading gains were Realty, Metal,Power, Teck and Auto indices up 1-2.5%. Consumer Durables, Capital Goods, Bankex and FMCG indices too added 0.4-0.7%
The movers among the Sensex-30 were Hindalco which gained 5% followed by Cipla, Maruti Suzuki, Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel, HDFC, Mahindra & Mahindra, Sterlite, HDFC Bank, Coal India and Jindal Steel which added between 2-4%.
The only ones in the red were Wipro, SBI, Dr Reddys Lab, Sun Pharma and Tata Motors which shed 1-2%.
Reliance Industries, HUL, ONGC and L&T were the other notable losers, which slipped 0.1-0.7%.
The market breadth was very positive. 1,238 stocks advanced while 840 stocks declined on the BSE.
