Sensex surges 300 points; Nifty touches 5200

The 30-share BSE Sensex rallied 300 points led by broadbased buying. The BSE Nifty shot up 2.76% as country's largest lenders State Bank of India and ICICI Bank surged 4.4% and 3.9%, respectively. while Axis Bank spiked 5%.

The BSE benchmark climbed 298 points or 1.77% to 17137.14 and the NSE benchmark rose 100.30 points or 1.97% to 5,200.05.

Infrastructure stocks saw huge buying interest today; engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro and power equipment manufacturer BHEL were up 3.6%-4%.

Reliance Infrastructure and Jaiprakash Associates gained 5%. Power producers Tata Power and NTPC went up 2.7%-3.7%.

Commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors spiked 4.5% while utility vehicle manufacturer M&M jumped 2.4%.

Metals stocks like Tata Steel, Jindal Steel and Sterlite Industries rallied more than 2.5%-3%.

Telecom operator Bharti Airtel, cigarette major ITC and index heavyweight Reliance Industries rose 1%.

However, shares of Wipro and ONGC were only losers among largecaps, falling 0.9% and 0.36%, respectively.

Advancing shares outnumbered declining by 912 to 506 on the National Stock Exchange.

Nifty extends gains; Axis Bank, Tata Motors top gainers

The BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty extended gains to 1.5% in the afternoon trade, supported majorly by ICICI Bank and State Bank of India. Infosys, L&T and Tata Motors too were quite supportive. However, Wipro remained top loser, falling more than 1%.

The BSE benchmark rose 239 points to 17,077.86 and the NSE benchmark was up 77 points to 5,176.65. France's CAC, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE were up around 0.5%.

Top commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors topped the buying list, shooting up 4%. Country's largest lenders State Bank of India and ICICI Bank climbed nearly 4% ahead of the Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy review for the June quarter. Private sector lender Axis Bank surged over 4%.

Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro and state-owned power equipment manufacturer gained 3% each. Infrastructure companies like Reliance Infrastructure and JP Associates were up nearly 4%.

Infosys, India's No. 2 software services exporter Infosys rose 2.6% and top telecom operator Bharti Airtel was up 1%. Shares of M&M, Sun Pharma, Tata Steel, NTPC, Cipla, Jindal Steel and Tata Power moved up around 2%.

Oil & gas producer Reliance Industries went up 1% and cigarette major ITC was up 0.7%.

In the second line shares, Oriental Bank, Shree Global, IRB Infrastructure, Jet Airways and Sobha Developer shot up 5.5-8% whereas Responsive Industries, Elantas Beck, Glodyne Tech, Redington and Puravankara Projects lost 4.7-7%.

Sensex rises over 200 pts; banks rally ahead of RBI policy

Indian equity benchmarks continued to trade with more than 1% gain led by buying across sectors barring technology. European markets opened marginally higher on Monday. France's CAC and Germany's DAX extended rally, rising 0.5% on hopes of some strong measures by European Central Bank to revive sluggish economic growth in its meet that scheduled for August 2.

The BSE benchmark surged 206.65 points or 1.23% to 17,045.84 and the NSE benchmark gained 66 points at 5,165.85.

India's largest lender State Bank of India rallied 2.8% ahead of the Reserve Bank of India's quarterly monetary policy review tomorrow. Majority of experts don't expect cut in key rates and cash reserve ratio, but few experts say the RBI may consider cut of 25 basis points in repo rate.

Indranil Sengupta, chief economist India, BofA ML says, he is hoping for a 25 bps rate cut tomorrow. "Then we expect the RBI to go on pause till December and cut 75 bps again by March," he adds.

Private sector lender ICICI Bank shot up over 4% while its rival HDFC Bank gained 0.5%.

Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro, top commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors and drug maker Sun Pharma gained more than 2.5%.

Infosys, country's second largest software services exporter rose 1.7% whereas its rivals Wipro and TCS dropped 1.6% and 0.3%, respectively.

Index heavyweights Reliance Industries and ITC were up over 0.6%. State-owned power equipment manufacturer BHEL was up 2% and telecom operator Bharti Airtel went up 1%.

Sensex at 1-week high; Wipro, TCS underperform

The BSE Sensex was trading at one-week high due to consistent buying interest in banks, metals, capital goods, power and healthcare stocks. Among technology stocks, Infosys (India's No. 2 software services exporter) rose over 1% whereas its rivals Wipro and TCS were down 2.5% and 0.7%, respectively.

The 30-share BSE Sensex rallied 182 points to 17,020.98 and the 30-share NSE Nifty rose 56.10 points to 5,155.95.

Shares of India's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank topped the buying list, rising more than 4% after better than expected results in the quarter ended June 2012. Other lenders State Bank of India and HDFC Bank were up 1.3% and 0.75%, respectively.

Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro, commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors and pharma major Sun Pharma surged over 2.5%. Shares of Cipla and M&M gained 2% each.

Among others, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Auto, Tata Steel, BHEL, NTPC, Sterlite Industries and Tata Power moved up around 1-2%. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries went up 0.7% and cigarette major ITC was up 0.4%.

Shares of Cairn India, Jaiprakash Associates and Reliance Infrastructure surged more than 3%.

In the second line shares, Shree Global, Sobha Developer, IRB Infrastructure, Pipavav Defence and Hindustan National Glass were up 4-7% while Puravankara Projects, Glodyne Tech, Info Edge, Allcargo and Punjab & Sind lost 3-6%.

About two shares advanced for every share declining on the National Stock Exchange.

Sensex holds early gains; ICICI, Infosys, L&T, SBI lead

Indian shares retained their early gains led by buying interest in ICICI Bank, Infosys and L&T. ITC, Reliance Industries, Bharti and SBI too were quite supportive. Top car maker Maruti Suzuki recouped its entire losses on short covering; the stock fell 2% in early trade due to weak numbers in June quarter and problems at its Manesar plant.

The BSE benchmark gained 195 points or 1.16% at 17,034.19 and the NSE benchmark rose 57.55 points or 1.13% to 5,157.40, but the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were up 0.75% each.

Country's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank extended gains, rising 3.5% on further buying interest after strong Q1 numbers while its rivals State Bank of India and HDFC Bank were up 1% each. The buying in banks may be ahead of Reserve Bank of India's quarterly monetary policy review that scheduled for July 31. Majority of experts don't expect any change in policy rates and cash reserve ratio as they feel the inflation is still above RBI's comfort level of 7%.

Infosys, India's No. 2 software services exporter rallied 1.5% whereas its rivals TCS and Wipro were under pressure.

Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro and top telecom operator Bharti Airtel shot up nearly 2%.

Cigarette major ITC, oil & gas producer Reliance Industries and commercial vehicle major Tata Motors gained over 0.6%.

Pharma majors (known defensive stocks) Sun Pharma and Cipla were up 2% each.

Asian markets too traded higher on hopes that the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank will deliver new measures to give a boost to sluggish economies. Nikkei, Straits Times, Kospi and Taiwan Weighted were up 0.6%-1% while Hang Seng rose 1.5%.