Markets continue to trade firm, Sensex up over 300 pts

Markets firmed up in late trades after short covering was seen in index heavyweight ITC and financials.

Markets continued to trade firm with the Sensex gaining over 300 points and the Nifty recovering 6,100 level after short covering was seen in index heavyweight ITC and financials.

At 2:25PM, the 30-share Sensex was up 331 points at 20,549 and the 50-share Nifty was up 101 points at 6,096.

Asian markets came off their day's highs but Japan's benchmark NIkkei ended up 1.5% amid a weaker yen. The Shanghai Composite was down 0.5% while Hang Seng was trading flat with negative bias. The Straits Times was up 0.2%.

European markets were trading higher in early trades after an agreement with Iran and six world powers. The CAC-40, DAX and FTSE-100 were all up 0.4-0.5% each.

The Indian rupee continued to remain firm against the US dollar at Rs 62.55 compared with its Friday's close of Rs 62.83 on dollar sale by exporters and banks.

The BSE Bankex was the top gainer among the sectoral indices on the BSE up 3.2% followed by Capital Goods, FMCG, Auto, Oil & Gas, Realty and Power indices up 1-2.9% each.

In the financial pack, ICICI Bank was up 5.2%, HDFC gained 3.4%, HDFC Bank rose 2% and SBI was up 3.7%.

Index heavyweight ITC witnessed short covering at lower levels after the stock had corrected in the previous few sessions. The stock was up 2.5%.

Other Sensex gainers include, L&T, Tata Motors, ONGC and Reliance Industries.

Infosys and Bharti Airtel were trading marginally lower.

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap index was up 0.8% and the Small-cap index was also up 0.8%.

Market breadth continued to remain positive with 1,329 gainers and 1,021 losers on the BSE.