Markets have a firm start

The markets have started the day well. The Sensex is quoting at 18102, stronger by 53 points and the Nifty is at 5431, up 17 points. The midcap index is at 7726, higher by 32 points and the smallcap index is at 9745, up 26 points.

Wall Street ended higher overnight after earnings from Wal-Mart and Home Depot and a $39 billion takeover bid in the agriculture sector bolstered confidence in the corporate outlook. The Dow added 103 points at 10,405 and Nasdaq gained 27 points at 2,209. And taking cues from the developments in the US markets overnight, the Asian indices have opened in  the green; Hang Seng was trading stronger by 92 points and the Nikkei was up 37 points in early trades.

Tata Motors (strengthened by 1% at Rs 1016), DLF (gained 0.9% at Rs 321) and HDFC Bank (added 0.9% at Rs 2142) are the leading gainers on the BSE. Tata Steel, Infosys and Sterlite are the other significant gainers. And index heavyweight RIL has inched higher by 0.1% at Rs 972.

Bajaj Corp has debuted at a premium of 15% of Rs 760 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) against its issue price of Rs 660 per share. The stock hit high of Rs 810 and is currently trading at Rs 803, a 22% premium to its issue price.

The losers on the BSE are RCom (weakened by 0.4% at Rs 165), Hero Honda (shed 0.3% at Rs 1898) and L&T (lost 0.3% at Rs 1769).

The market breadth is strong. Out of 1545 stocks traded on the BSE, there were 1142 advancing stocks as against 363 declines.