The market is likely to maintain its upward momentum that saw the Sensex and Nifty climb 1.1% in trade yesterday. The US markets closed at their highest levels in 10 weeks as a weaker dollar resulted in a rise in crude prices and raw material stocks. Asian bourses are trading with gains taking cues from the US. The SGX Nifty is up 12.5 points at 5,452.5 over its previous close of 5,440. The Indian market was up on Monday on strong auto sales in July. In the early trading session, the bourses took cues from Asian markets. The market further extended gains in the afternoon session, after European markets put in a good performance. Finally, the Sensex ended at 18,081 (up 213 points or 1.1%) and the Nifty closed at 5,431 (up 64 points or 1.1%). Wall Street ended higher on Monday as the weakening dollar boosted crude and raw material stocks. Raw materials also rose and the Reuters/Jefferies CRB commodity index touched a three-month high. The rally was also supported by news from the Institute for Supply Management, which said the US manufacturing sector grew at a faster-than-expected in July. The government reported construction spending unexpectedly rose in June. The Dow rose 208.44 points (2%) to 10,674.38. The S&P 500 rose 24.26 points (2.2%) to 1,125.86. The Nasdaq rose 40.66 points (1.8%) to 2,295.36. Most markets in Asia were trading higher this morning on news that the US manufacturing rose faster-than-expected in July. Higher commodity prices also boosted raw material companies in the region. Hang Seng was up 0.6%, KLSE Composite was up 0.1%, Nikkei 225 was up 1.2%, Straits Times was up 0.2%, Seoul Composite was up 0.3% and Taiwan Weighted was up 0.5%. On the other hand, Shanghai Composite was down 0.04% in early trade. The SGX Nifty was up 12.5 points at 5,452.5 over its previous close of 5,440. The Lok Sabha on Monday passed a Bill to replace the Unit Linked Insurance Plan (ULIP) Ordinance that seeks to set up a joint mechanism to address the issues of jurisdiction between the financial sector watchdogs after the government assured that autonomy of existing sectoral regulators will not be diluted. The Securities and Insurance Laws (Amendment) and Validation Bill, 2010, provides for setting up a joint body under the chairmanship of the finance minister, and with representations from the four financial sector regulators and the Finance Ministry. The Bill states that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor will be the vice-chairman of the joint committee. Manufacturing expansion picked up pace in July, a survey showed on Monday. The HSBC Markit Purchasing Managers' Index, based on a survey of 500 companies, edged up to 57.6 in July from 57.3 in June when it was down from a multi-year high. The factory output index jumped to a four-month high of 62.3 in July from 60.5 in the prior month, pointing to a rate of expansion in production that was above the trend since the end of the financial crisis, according to survey compilers Markit. `

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