The markets are trading higher in early deals following the overnight rally on Wall Street. The Sensex is up 115 to 8,894 levels and the Nifty has gained 1 per cent.
“Though Indian markets would gain due to short covering and positive global cues, the overall outlook is still not positive,” said Alok Agarwal, Head of Research, KR Choksey Securities.
Banking, realty, metal and capital good counters lead the gainers. Among the sectoral indices, the BSE banking index is up nearly 2 per cent and the realty index has surged 1.7 per cent. The BSE metal index is also trading 1.5 per cent higher.
Among the Sensex stocks, JP Associates, is the biggest gainer. It has advanced 3.5 per cent. ICICI Bank, Sterlite and Reliance Communication are the other main gainers in the pack.
“Markets across Asia are likely to re-test the October lows. A sustained turnaround in global markets is not expected till late 2009,” said Dan McCormack, Asia Equity Strategist, Macquarie Securities.
Wall Street snapped back from a steep sell-off with a rebound in financial stocks that were pummeled on Tuesday. Upbeat comments from banks, stronger-than-expected results from IBM Corp. and hopes that Washington will offer more help to the economy powered a rally that recovered most of the previous session's losses.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 279.01, or 3.51 percent, to 8,228.10.
Broader stock indicators also gained. The Standard & Poor's 500 index advanced 35.02, or 4.35 percent, to 840.24, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 66.21, or 4.60 percent, to 1,507.07.
Asian markets are trading mostly higher today with South Korea’s Kospi, Japan’s Nikkei and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gaining over 0.7 per cent each.
(With AP inputs)
