Markets firm in opening trades led by oil shares

Markets have started the trading session on a positive note tracking global cues along with buying oil and gas shares.

By 9:30, the Sensex was higher by 52 points at 19,735 whereas the Nifty gained by 16 points at 5,962 levels.

On the global front, the dollar held near multi-year highs against the yen on Monday after surprisingly strong US labour data, but demand for riskier assets was curbed after a mixed bag of economic data from China painted a patchy economic recovery in the world's second-largest economy.

Commodities prices were caught between growing optimism about more solid demand as the global economy improves and the strengthening dollar which makes dollar-denominated commodities expensive for non-dollar holders.

The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan held steady but were weighed by a 0.1% drop in South Korean shares and a 0.3% decline in Shanghai shares.

Back home, investors would be looking at a slew of macro economic data including IIP and inflation numbers, which is set to come out this week. Markets may also react to the advance tax payment for the final installment for the current fiscal.

On the sectoral front, BSE Realty, Oil & Gas and PSU indices have surged by almost 1% each followed by counters like Healthcare, Power, Consumer Durable, Auto, Banks, IT and FMCG, all gaining marginally. However, BSE Capital Goods and Metal indices are trading marginally lower.

The main gainers on the Sensex at this hour include ONGC, RIL, Coal India, GAIL, Cipla, Sun Pharma, HDFC, Bharti Airtel and ICICI bank whereas few losers are L&T, Hindalco, JSPL, Sterlite and HDFC Bank.

Bank of America-Merrill Lynch upgraded Reliance Industries Ltd to "neutral" from "underperform", citing increasing evidence of an improving refining outlook and an expected earnings growth recovery.

Among others shares, Amtek Auto has rallied 9% to Rs 77 in early morning deals after the company said it has acquired NeumayerTekfor Group of Germany for Rs 2,717 crore.

The broader markets are out performing the benchmark indices. BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are up 0.4-1%.

The market breadth in BSE remains healthy with 835 shares advancing and 353 shares declining.