Markets Trade on a Positive Note

The Global Markets emanate positive vibes this morning. U.S. stocks rallied, reversing yesterdays drop for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as a decline in jobless claims and better-than-estimated corporate earnings tempered concern Europe’s debt crisis is worsening. European stocks rose, with the Stoxx Europe 600 Index surging the most since May 2010, as investors speculated that recent losses have overestimated the slowdown in the pace of economic growth. This morning Asian stocks rose, paring the benchmark index’s third weekly decline, as fewer U.S. jobless claims and improving earnings eased concern the global economy is faltering. In commodities, Crude oil advanced as declining U.S. jobless claims sent equities higher, adding to optimism that U.S. economy is strengthening. Gold fell for a second day, paring the best weekly advance since January 2009, as a rebound in equities and higher margins on futures encouraged sales after the metal’s rally to its highest ever above $1,800 an ounce. Copper in London gained as much as 0.9 percent to $8,963 a metric ton, climbing for the second day, after claims for unemployment-insurance payments unexpectedly fell in the U.S., easing concern that a recovery in the world’s second largest user of the metal is faltering. The markets started in the green in line with the global markets, with the Sensex up 51 points at 17,110 and the Nifty up 3 points at 5,141. The broader markets have started on a stronger note with both the small cap and the midcap indices up 0.8% each outperforming the Sensex which is up 0.4%. The draggers in the Oil & Gas space are HPCL, Oil India, IOC down 0.4-0.6%. The losers among the Sensex stocks in the opening trades is Tata Motors down 1.5% after CLSA downgraded the company to under-perform from outperform, with the target price reduced to Rs 790 from Rs 1,150. The other notable losers are Hindalco, Reliance Industries and Wipro down 0.2-0.4%. Among the Sensex gainers are Mahindra & Mahindra, Sterlite, Jindal Steel, Tata Power, Cipla and ICICI Bank up 1% each. The market breadth is positive with 1403 stocks advanced while 652 declined in opening trades.