Markets at 3-year highs, Sensex tops 21,000

Markets surged in early trades led by index heavy weights and private banks

Benchmark share indices touched 3-year highs in early morning trades on Thursday with the Sensex topping the 21,000 mark led by index heavyweights and private banks.

At 9:50AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 215 points at 20,982 after hitting an intra-day high of 21,014 and the 50-share Nifty was up 59 points at 6,237.

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(Updated at 9:33AM)

Benchmark share indices opened flat with a negative bias tracking weak Asian cues but staged a recovery led by gains in index heavyweights Reliance Industries and FMCG major ITC

At 9:33AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 134 points at 20,902 and the 50-share Nifty was up 35 points at 6,213.

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US share indices ended lower on Wednesday after heavy-equipment reported lower-than-expected profit for the third quarter and lowered its outlook for the year. Further, semiconductor companies which cut their forecasts also weighed on market sentiment.

The Dow Jones ended down 54 points at 15,413, the S&P 500 lost 8 points to close at 1,746 and the Nasdaq closed 22 points lower at 3,907.

Asian stocks were also trading lower after China's money market rates surged and worries over China's economic outlook.

The Nikkei was down 0.7%, the Hang Seng slipped 0.9%, Straits Times lost 0.1% and the Shanghai Composite was down 0.2%

The BSE Realty was the top gainer among the sectoral indices on the BSE followed by FMCG, OIl and Gas indices.

Reliance Ind was up 1.2% and ITC gained 0.7% contributing the most to gains in the Sensex
along with HDFC and HDFC Bank which recovered from lower levels after recent correction.

SBI was up nearly 1% on reports that the bank would get Rs 2,000 crore of capital infusion from the government.

Other Sensex gainers include, Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel and ONGC among others.

Among other shares, Raymond was up over 3% after the textile major in the second quarter of the current fiscal reported an 85% rise in net profit at Rs 92 crore compared to Rs 50 crore in the same quarter last year.

In the broader market the BSE Mid-cap was up 0.7% and Small-cap index gained 0.6%.

Market breadth was strong with 709 gainers and 270 losers on the BSE.