Markets trading near day highs

Benchmark indices are trading near day highs on significant buying among financial and capital goods shares. Positive Asian markets too are supporting the upmove. 

By 1130, the Sensex was up 306 points at 18,656 and the Nifty gained 100 points to 5,654. The Sensex and the Nifty have touched an intra-day high of 18,667 levels and 5,658 mark, respectively so far.

On the global front, assets from Asian shares to oil to gold rose on Friday and the euro steadied as stimulus measures from major central banks continued to buoy investor confidence, offsetting weak economic data.

The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.7 percent after slipping to its lowest in nearly a week on Thursday.

Back home, the rupee today recovered by 30 paise to 54.08 against the dollar in early trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange on increased capital inflows, amid weakening of the American currency against the euro overseas.

On the sectoral front, BSE Capital Goods and Power indices have surged by almost 3% each followed by counters like Banks, Metal, Realty, PSU, FMCG, Auto, Healthcare, Consumer Durable, Oil & Gas and IT, all gaining between 1-2%.

From the Capital Goods space, L&T and BHEL have gained between 3-4%. BHEL is the top Sensex gainer.

Financial shares like ICICI Bank, SBI and HDFC have surged between 2-3% on renewed buying demand.

Other notable gainers include Sterlite, M&M, Tata Power, Tata Steel, Bharti Airtel, Hindalco, ITC and Sun Pharma.

Stocks of retail companies today climbed over 11% after the government implemented its decision to allow FDI in multi-brand retail sector.

Retail stocks gathered momentum in the early trade where Pantaloon Retail shot up by 11.61% to Rs 195, while Provogue zoomed 10.78% to Rs 18.70 on the BSE.

Shares of auto major Mahindra & Mahindra were up over 3% after the company late Thursday announced the launch of its new utility vehicle Quanto at competitive pricing.

The broader markets too are performing in line with benchmark indices, gain by nearly 0.5%.

The market breadth in BSE remains healthy with 1,664 shares advancing and 720 shares declining.