Markets Trading Higher, Sensex Up 370 Points

As expected in our morning update, the Indian markets opened on a positive note today on the back of strong global and domestic cues. At present, the Sensex and Nifty are trading higher by 1.86% and 1.87% respectively. The QE3 booster and the diesel price hike have taken the markets to new highs.

Yesterday, the government went ahead with a much-awaited step in reforms by increasing the price of diesel by Rs 5/litre. Further, the much-awaited QE3 has been announced by the Fed Reserve. The Fed has said that it will expand its holdings of long-term securities with open-ended purchases of US$ 40 billion of mortgage debt a month in the third round of quantitative easing, as it seeks to boost growth and reduce unemployment.

All the BSE indices are currently in the green zone. Realty, Bankex and Metals are trading with leading gains of 4.23%, 3.19% and 3.10% respectively.  Auto, Oil & Gas, Capital Goods and PSU are also up by over 2%. Others such as PSU, Power, IT, Tech, CD, Pharma and FMCG are up in the range of 0.23% and 1.53%.

The Asian markets continue to trade on a strong, positive note. At present, the Hang Seng, Nikkei and Shanghai are all trading higher by 2.60%, 1.97% and 0.51% respectively.

Back home, the Realty stocks are among the leading gainers so far in today’s trades. DLF, Indiabulls Real Estate, HDIL and Unitech all witnessing gains of 5.88%, 8.83%, 4.47% and 4.69% respectively.

Others in the Banking space are also trading in the green. Stocks like SBI, Union Bank and YES Bank are up by nearly 4.15%, 4.07 and 5.61% respectively.

The market breadth, which indicates the overall health of the market, is strong at the moment. On the BSE, 1590 shares have advanced, 626 shares have declined and 72 shares are unchanged.

We expect the markets to remain in high spirits today.