The markets look in fine mettle as we venture into the later half of this trading session and the final hours of the current month derivatives series. Bolstered by strength across the global bourses, the Sensex is quoting at 17,979, up 144 points and the Nifty is at 5,389, up 40 points. The midcap index is at 6646, higher by 23 points and the smallcap index is at 8057, up 55 points.
Global markets are having a good session of trade. European markets have opened higher; FTSE, CAC and DAX have gained about half a percent each in early trades. And the Asian markets are also trade firm; Seoul has spurted more than 2%, while Nikkei and Hang Seng are up about half a percent each.
Oil, metal and banking are the leading sectoral gainers on the BSE.
In the oil space, ONGC has strengthened by 3.7% at Rs 272 and RIL has gained 2% at Rs 925.
In the metal space, Sterlite has galloped by 2.5% at Rs 166, Tata Steel has soared by 1.8% at Rs 572 after reporting turnaround results for the year ended March 2011, Hindalco is up by 1.3% at Rs 186 and Jindal Steel is up 1.1% at Rs 642.
And the banking space is seeing the likes of ICICI Bank gaining 1.4% at Rs 1024 and HDFC Bank adding 0.6% at Rs 2266.
Tata Motors has hardened by 1.7% at Rs 1153 ahead of its Q4 results scheduled later in the day
and United Breweries has galloped by 4.3% at Rs 520 to top the BSE-A gainers list.
The stocks that have bucked the strong trend include M&M (weaker by 2.1% at Rs 666), ITC (lower by 0.8% at Rs 187) and Infosys (down 0.5% at Rs 2778).
Of the 2,700 stocks traded on the BSE so far, 1,474 have advanced, while 1093 have declined, indicating a positive market breadth.
