Sensex Crosses 18800, Nifty Over 5700

The Indian markets have extended their morning gains and are trading higher in the green zone. The Sensex and Nifty are trading higher by almost 1.3%, breaching the psychological 18800 and 5700 marks respectively. Further, in the afternoon, media reports stated that Moody's outlook on India is stable, partly due to the country's high savings and investment rates.

All the sectoral indices are trading higher at the moment. Consumer Durables, Realty and Bankex are among the best performers, while others like Healthcare and Power are marginally in the green zone.

The other Asian markets are trading in a mixed bag. The Japanese Index Nikkei is up by 0.36%, while Hang Seng and Shanghai are lower by 0.02% and 1.36% respectively. According to Bloomberg reports, China’s stocks fell, with the benchmark index moving lower than 2000 for the first time since 2009, as the value of shares traded slumped to the lowest in 4 years. Material and health-care companies led the losses.

Back home, the Metals pack is shining. Stocks like Sterlite Industries and Hindalco are the best performers, gaining 3.56% and 2.74% respectively. Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank and HDFC are trading higher more than 2% each. Others like ITC, Infosys, L&T, ICICI Bank, L&T and SBI are up between 1%-2%. Stocks of companies like Tata Power, Maruti Suzuki, Wipro, TCS, etc. are marginally in the green zone.

NTPC is the only index stock witnessing losses, lower by 0.22% at Rs 158.85. This was mainly after the government's divestment news.

The market breadth, which indicates the overall health of the market, is strong. On the BSE, 1685 shares have advanced, 979 shares have declined and 136 have remained unchanged.

We expect the markets to remain volatile with a positive bias for the day.