Markets Extend Morning Gains

The Indian markets have extended their morning gains amid strong Asian cues and the positive opening of the European markets. The Sensex and Nifty are up by 0.84% and 0.91% respectively. The recent petrol hike may see a partial rollback due to the increasing pressure on the government. If this happens, it will lead to negative pressure on the markets.

The European markets opened in the green zone today, extending last week's gains. This was after opinion polls in Greece eased concerns that the country will exit the Euro zone. The improving sentiments in the country over the bailout plan has kept the markets firm positive. The FTSE, CAC and DAX are up by  0.89%, 0.83% and 1.07% respectively.

Other Asian markets continue to trade on a positive note on the back of the optimism from Greece. The opinion polls have brought some hope among the investors over the austerity measure plans.

Back home, among the BSE sectoral indices, Bankex is leading with gains of 1.48%. Power, CG, Auto and CD are also up by 1.34%, 1.30%, 1.08% and 1.06% respectively. All the other indices are trading in the range of 0.07%-0.56%.

In individual stocks, Hotel Leela Venture is up 4.71% to Rs 32.25 as the company has fully redeemed its outstanding bonds issued in 2007 for USD 41.6 million.

DB Realty is up by 3.14% to Rs 92 after reporting decent result for the Mar 2012 quarter. The company's net profit went up by 151.8% on a YoY basis to Rs 20.27 crore.

Of the Sensex stocks, index heavyweights BHEL, SBI and Tata Power are leading with gains of 2.86%, 2.73% and 2.19% respectively. Among the major losers, GAIL, HUL and ONGC continue to trade lower by 2.60%, 1.41% and 1.48% respectively.

The market breadth, which indicates the overall health of the market, is positive. On the BSE, 1493 shares gained, 1001 shares declined and 105 shares remained unchanged.

We expect the markets to remain volatile for the rest of the day as traders roll over positions from the near-month May 2012 series to the June 2012 series.