The benchmark indices surged in early trade, with the Sensex rallying past the 18k mark and the Nifty recapturing the 5400 mark, and have held on to their gains ever since. The Sensex is quoting at 18014, stronger by 146 points and the Nifty is at 5410, higher by 43 points. The midcap index is at 7473, higher by 65 points and the smallcap index is at 9439, up 90 points.
All the sectoral indices are in the green, with banking hogging the limelight. ICICI Bank occupies the numero uno position in both the banking and BSE-50 index. The banking major has jumped by 2.6% at Rs 928 after reporting a 17% rise in net profit rose to Rs 1026 crore in Q1 June 2010 over Q1 June 2009. Amon the other banking majors, SBI has strengthened by 1.1% at Rs 2532 and HDFC Bank is trading flat, with a positive bias, at Rs 2129. And the midcap banking space is also looking good, with Bank of India having zoomed by 5% at Rs 431, UCO Bank adding 3% at Rs 95, and Central Bank and PNB gaining in the region of 2% at Rs 171 and Rs 1095 respectively.
Jindal Steel is the only loser among the Sensex-50 scrips, shedding 0.1% at Rs 621.
The market breadth is positive. Out of 2556 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 1780 advancing stocks as against 710 declines.
