Markets on firm ground, Sensex gains 200 points

Markets continued to trade on a firm note in noon deals on the back of buying across the board.

The Sensex jumped 231 points to 16,979 and the S&P CNX Nifty was at 5,103, up 66 points.
Earlier in the day, the markets witnessed a gap-up opening on the back of positive global cues and the Sensex touched a high of 17,030.

According to Somil Mehta, senior technical analyst (Equity), Sharekhan, "The markets are definitely heading up, with 5,200 being the immediate resistance on the Nifty.

If the index manages to surpass 5,200, we should effortlessly head to 5,400 levels."

Meanwhile, most of the European markets opened in the green.

CAC index opened at 3,166, up 25 points, DAX was at 5,877, up 18 points. However the FTSE was in red, down 26 points at 5,410.

Back home, Hero Honda was the top gainer among the Sensex stocks.

The stock advanced nearly 5% to Rs 2,076 after reporting better-than-expected 19.3% year-on-year growth in net profit at Rs 604 crore in the second quarter ended September on the back of a robust volume growth.

India's largest two-wheeler maker had reported a net profit of Rs 506 crore a year ago.

DLF, Wipro, J P Associates, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma, Coal India, State Bank of India, Larsen & Toubro, Reliance Industries and ICICI Bank also added 2-3% each.

HDFC Bank was trading higher by 2.3% at Rs 488

ahead of its second quarter numbers to be announced later on Wednesday. On the other hand, Hindustan Unilever was the only laggard on the benchmark index.

Among the individual stocks, Coromandel International rallied 10% to Rs 339 after announcing issue of unsecured redeemable bonus debentures in the ratio 1:1, on the occasion of completion of company's 50 years of in operations.

Honeywell Automation dipped 5% at Rs 2,420 after reporting 39% year-on-year (y-o-y) drop in net profit to Rs 15.68 crore for the third quarter ended September, compared to Rs 25.88 crore in the same period of the previous year.

All the sectoral indices were trading in the green. BSE Realty index was the top gainer, up 2.4% to 1,834.

BSE banking index- Bankex also rallied 2% to 11,185 levels after the finance minister- Pranab Mukherjee assured during a conference that adequate capital will be infused in PSU banks if required.

Auto, Capital Goods, Metal, Oil & Gas, Healthcare, Consumer Durables, IT, PSU and Power indices also advanced 1-2% each in trades thus far.

Among the realty stocks, Anant Raj Industries was the top gainer, up 4.7% to Rs 51. DLF, Unitech, Phoenix Mills, HDIL, Indiabulls Real Estate, Sobha Developers and Prestige Estates also climbed 2-3% each.

The broader markets were also trading higher. The BSE mid-cap index added 1.2% to 6,189 and the small-cap index added 63 points to 6,918.

Overall market breadth was extremely positive as 1,695 stocks advancing while 831 were declining.