Helped by the strong rally in US markets yesterday, markets across Asia have rallied in early trades. The Sensex has comfortably cruised to a new lifetime high.

Sensex opened at 13209 and touched a new all-time high of 13300. The index is trading higher by 97 points at 13283 at 10.10 AM.

Nifty opened at 3812 and saw a new lifetime high of 3840. The index is now trading higher by 23 points at 3832.

Select banking stocks are doing well in early trades. HDFC Bank is the best performer with gains of nearly 2 per cent. ICICI Bank has gained a per cent while OBC has recovered and is trading a per cent higher

Dr. Reddy's has gained close to 1.5 per cent on speculation about a European buy-out. Glaxo has also gained over a per cent

Among techs, Infosys and Satyam have gained a per cent each after the NASDAQ rally yesterday

Tata Motors has recovered and has gained more than a per cent

VSNL and Suzlon are the other major gainers

Oil marketing stocks remain weak on speculation about a cut in retail fuel prices. Both BPCL and HPCL are down more than a per cent each

Sun Pharma and Zee are the only other losers among Nifty stocks

Mid-caps and small caps are once again doing far better than large caps in early trades. Most of the frontline mid-cap stocks are attracting very good buying interest as they are still below their peaks touched in May this year.

The NSE mid-cap index is now trading with gains of nearly a per cent. BSE mid-cap has added 1.2 per cent and the small-cap index is trading nearly 1.2 per cent higher. Market breadth on the NSE is highly positive in early trades.

Shyam Telecom, which got re-listed yesterday after a de-merger and capital restructuring exercise, has gained another 15 per cent.

India Infoline has added another 10 per cent after rallying 20 per cent yesterday.

Solectron Centum is locked in 10 per cent upper circuit for the second day.

Motherson Sumi and Aban Offshore are among the major mid-cap gainers.

Goldiam, Balaji Tele, GVK Power, Surya Pharma and Gangotri Textiles are the major mid-cap losers.