Markets extend gains amid firm Asian cues, ITC leads

Markets extended gains in late morning trades, amid firm Asian cues, with FMCG major ITC leading the gains along with index heavyweights Reliance Industries and Infosys.

At 10:50AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 167 points at 20,327 and the 50-share Nifty was up 52 points at 6,084.

The rupee today recovered by 17 paise to 59.55 in early trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange on dollar selling by exporters and some banks.

A higher opening in the domestic equity market and a weak dollar against euro and yen overseas after poor US housing data raised the likelihood that the Federal Reserve would keep its stimulus programme in place for some time, also supported the rupee, forex dealers said.

Asian markets rose to their highest levels in six-weeks with stocks in China and Hong Kong leading the gains in the region. Japanese stocks extended gains after PM Shinzo Abe's victory in upper-house elections on Sunday. Shanghai Composite and Hang Seng were up over 2% while Nikkei and Straits Times was up 0.3-0.6% each.

BSE Bankex was the top gainer among the sectoral indices on the BSE, up 1.7% followed by Realty, COnsumer Durables, Metal, IT, Oil and Gas indices up 1-1.7% each.

FMCG major ITC was among the top Sensex gainers up 1.2% while its peer Hindustan Unilever was up 0.5%.

Software majors witnessed renewed buying interest on the back of encouraging results for the first quarter. Infosys and TCS were up 1-1.3% each.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries was up 1.1% after the recent corrrection.

Financial shares were also among the top Sensex gainers with ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and SBI up 0.9-1.7% each.

Among other shares, Fresenius Kabi Oncology has rallied 15% to Rs 127 after the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has allowed the company to delist its shares from the Indian stock market.