Markets have a decent start

The markets have opened on a firm note in the absence of any negative cues from the global front. The Sensex is quoting at 18138, stronger by 61 points and the Nifty is at 5440, up 24 points. The midcap index is at 7628, higher by 60 points and the smallcap index is at 9739, up 94 points.

US stocks ended down for a third straight day on Thursday as an unexpected rise in jobless claims and a sobering revenue outlook from Cisco underscored the hurdles to economic recovery. The Dow slipped 58 points to 10,319 and Nasdaq shed 18 points to 2,190. But the Asian markets had a mixed opening; the Hang Seng shed 59 points and Nikkei lost 26 points in opening trades, while the Seoul Composite strengthened by 13 points and Straits Times gained 11 points in early trades.

Tata Steel has spurted by 2.8% at Rs 534 to emerge as the leading gainer on the BSE on reporting a consolidated net profit of Rs 1,790 crore for the April-June quarter. The company had suffered a loss of Rs 2,238.53 crore in the corresponding period a year ago. SBI has contin ued its good run by gainng another 1.6% at Rs 2830. The shares of India's biggest commercial bank in terms of branch network had surged nearly 7% in the previous session on strong Q1 results. And ICICI Bank has gained 1% at Rs 973. Cipla, Bharti Airtel and DLF are the other significant gainers. And index heavyweight RIL has inched higher by 0.3% at Rs 975.

On the other hand, Sterlite has weakened by 2.8% at Rs 163, Tata Power has shed 1% at Rs 1314 and RCom has lost 0.6% at Rs 172. And Tata Motors has inched lower by 0.4% at Rs 1019 after the gains of the recent past.

The market breadth is positive. Out of 2106 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 1619 advancing stocks as against 436 declines.