The markets continue to trade at higher level with hefty gains on susatined buying seen in scrips across sectors. Sensex was trading above the 17,000 mark with a good cushion. Nifty on the other hand created history by breaching the 5000 levels.

The sentiment has been very positive and liquidity is abundant which has been taking the markets to new heights.

At 15.02 hrs IST, the Sensex is up 231.45 points or 1.37% at 17152.84, and the Nifty up 52.20 points or 1.06% at 4992.70.

About 1501 shares have advanced, 1447 shares declined, and 85 shares are unchanged.

All the sector indices are green. Cement, power and technology are looking smart in todays session. Metal and technology are the star performers.The rupee is tradng at around 39.73 per USD.

In the metals space, the BSE metal index was up 3%. Major gainers in this space were Sterlite Ind, Tata Steel and Hindalco.

Top gainers on the indices are Sterlite Ind up 9%, Reliance Energy up 7%, Infosys up 5%, ACC up 3%, ONGC up 3%.

Top losers on the Sensex are HPCL, BPCL, Rel Petro, Ambuja Cement, HUL and Bharti Airtel.

Asian markets: Asian stocks advanced today after stocks rallied on Wall Street, with financials such as Mizuho Financial Group and exporters such as Sony Corp. leading the charge in Japan.

Hong Kong''s Hang Seng surged 1.67% or 440.95 points at 26,871.24. Japan''s Nikkei rose 1.54% or 252.90 points at 16,688.64. Taiwan''s Taiwan Weighted gained 0.77% or 71.35 points at 9,328.82. Singapore''s Straits Times advanced 0.97% or 35.56 points at 3,685.65. South Korea''s Seoul Composite was up 0.91% or 17.45 points at 1,936.71.