The markets have opened firm on the back of strength in the index heavyweights, especially from the banking sector . The Sensex is quoting at 18028, higher by 100 points and the Nifty is at 5413, up 28 points in early trades. The midcap index is at 7455, higher by 42 points and the smallcap index is at 9516, up 59 points. And all the BSE sectoral indices are in the green.
Wall Street rose overnight on hopes of strong corporate earnings. The Dow gained 57 points at 10,154 and Nasdaq added 19 points to end at 2,198. And the Asian markets were mixed in early trades; Hang Seng has emerged stronger by 84 points, while the Nikkei is down 113 points.
The leading gainers on the Sensex are HDFC Bank (strengthened by 1.4% at Rs 2079), DLF (gained 1.1% at Rs 318) and HDFC (added 1% at Rs 3081). Bharti Airtel, M&M and RCom are the other significant gainers. And index heavyweight RIL has edged higher by 0.5% at Rs 1062.
Hindustan Unilever is the only loser among the Sensex scrips, having shed 0.6% at Rs 262.
The market breadth is positive. Out of 1435 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 1133 advancing stocks as against 264 declines.
