Indian shares extended gains with National Stock Exchange's 50-share Nifty index breaching key 6,100 resistance levels for the first time since January 4, 2011 led by buying in rate-sensitive sectors amid hopes the Reserve Bank of India may cut interest rates next week to boost growth.
At 11:25AM, the Bombay Stock Exchange's 30-share index Sensex traded up 43.36 points at 20,145.43 while the National Stock Exchange's 50-share Nifty gained 13.70 points at 6,096.15.
Risk appetite also surged after the Bank of Japan said it would set a 2 percent inflation target and shifted to Federal Reserve-style open-ended asset purchases.
Investors, however, were expecting BoJ to inject 101 trillion yen monetary stimulus to lift the Japanese economy out of its third recession in five years.
In the results calendar, HUL will declare its third quarter performance later today while JSW Energy, Reliance Communications, Sun TV Network on Jan 23rd.
Globally, Asian shares also traded on a mixed note.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.23% to 23,650, Taiwan's Weighted index gained 0.44% to 7,749, Singapore's Straits Times inched up 0.06% to 3,223 while China's Shanghai Composite dropped 0.38% to 2,319 and Japan's Nikkei dropped 0.43% to 10,703.
Back home, banks, real-estate, metals, power, oil & gas, autos, health care indexes gained while consumer durables, tech, IT indexes dropped on BSE.
Among key Sensex stocks, NTPC gained 2%, Sun Pharma and Cipla gained 2% and 0.5% respectively, among banks, ICICI Bank rose 1.2% while SBI and HDFC Bank rose 0.2%, Tata Steel and Jindal Steel was up 0.5% each, Maruti Suzuki gained 0.8%, Wipro rose 1% on BSE.
Among losers, GAIL and BHEL fell 2% and 0.1% respectively, Hero MotoCorp fell over 0.5%, Bharti Airtel fell 0.3%, TCS and Infosys dropped 0.5% and 0.3% while ITC shed 0.3% on BSE.
The other notable movers are DB Corp that has rallied 8% to Rs 249 on BSE, its highest level since August 2011, after reporting over 300 bps year-on-year (yoy) expansion in operating margins for the third quarter ended December 31, 2012.
Geometric has dipped 5% to Rs 109 after reporting a lower-than-expected 7% quarter-on-quarter (qoq) growth in consolidated net profit at Rs 19.10 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2012 against an analysts expectations of Rs 24 crore.
Asian Paints is trading higher by almost 4% to Rs 4,439 after reporting 30.5% (yoy) growth in consolidated net profit at Rs 335 crore for the quarter ended December 31, due to improved demand conditions during Diwali season.
Pantaloon Retail (India) has surged 9% to Rs 265 after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowed foreign institutional investors (FIIs), Non Resident Indian (NRIs) and Persons of Indian Origins (PIOs) to buy shares in the company.
The broader markets traded positive with mid-caps and small-caps up by 0.3-0.4% on BSE.
The market breadth was firm. Out of 2,435 stocks traded, 1,229 stocks advanced compared to 1,065 declines on BSE.
