Markets Up 0.8%; Bajaj Auto Gains On Oct Sales

As expected, the Indian markets have opened on a strong, positive note in line with the global cues. The Sensex is up 0.8%, while the Nifty is at 5690, just 10 points short of the crucial 5700 level.

The Asian markets have continued to trade in positives expect for Shanghai, which has come down from the morning's flat trades. Nikkei is up 1.13% and Hang Seng has gained 1.26% at this time. The other Asian markets are also in the green zone, with Kospi showing nearly 1% gains.

Of the sectoral indices, the Capital Goods index has surged 1.6%. Realty, Power, PSUs, Bankex, Metals and Auto are also in over 1% gains. The buoyant positive sentiment has seen all the other sectoral indices up by 0.5% at this time. Mid-caps and small-caps are also higher by nearly 1% each.

Among the Sensex stocks, Bajaj Auto is the top gainer after the company reported record two-wheeler sales in Oct 2012. Hero MotoCorp and M&M are also up by 1.6% each. The shares of L&T are also trading 1.9% higher. The company has bagged a construction order worth Rs 1063 crore. State-owned electricity equipment maker BHEL has also gained 1.7%. Tata Steel is up by over 1% as the Indian government has asked Vietnam to speed up the process of land acquisition for the company's USD 5 billion steel projects. ITC, Coal India, NTPC and GAIL India all are higher by over 1%. Bharti Airtel, HUL, Tata Motors and Sun Pharma are in the red at this hour.

Wipro surged 0.6% after it beat the forecasts with a 24% rise in quarterly profits. The company has said that it would demerge its non-IT services, including consumer care and medical diagnostics into a new firm to focus on its outsourcing business, which accounts for nearly 86% of its total revenues. The shares of TCS and Infosys are also in gains.

Among other shares, AstraZeneca has gained 4%. CESC has also seen a price appreciation of 2%.

The overall market breadth indicating the health of the market is very positive. A total of 1458 stocks have advanced, 647 have declined and another 96 have remained unchanged.

Ahead today, we expect the markets to remain positive on strong global cues.