Markets open at life-time high; Sensex above 25,500

Main gainers on the Sensex are Tata Power, L&T, Coal India, Hindalco, Sesa Sterlite, GAIL

Markets have extended gains for third consecutive session and are trading at lifetime high tracking firm global cues along with capital goods and financials leading the gains.

By 9:30, the Sensex was higher by 183 points at 25,581 mark and the Nifty gained by 58 points at 7,642 levels.

Macroeconomic data, trend in investment by foreign institutional investors, progress of monsoon rains and global cues will dictate trend on the domestic bourses this week, say experts.

On the macro front, industrial production data for April will be released on Thursday.

On the global front, Asian stocks basked in the glow of a record close on Wall Street after bright US jobs data pointed to improving economic momentum, while the dollar gained on Monday on rising US Treasury yields.

US jobs data on Friday showed that nonfarm payrolls increased by 217,000 last month, bringing employment back to its pre-recession level and validating the view that labour conditions are improving. The unemployment rate held steady at a 5-1/2 year low of 6.3%.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up about 0.2%, while Japan's Nikkei stock average added 0.7% in early trading.

The Dow Jones industrial average and S&P 500 ended at new records on Friday. For the week, the Dow, the S&P and the Nasdaq Composite all added more than 1%, with the Nasdaq rising 1.9%.

Back home, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 1283.04 crore on Friday as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.

On the sectoral front, BSE Realty index has gained by nearly 2% followed by counters like Capital Goods, Consumer Durables, Metal, Banks, Power, Auto and Healthcare, all gaining by 1% each.

The main gainers on the Sensex at this hour include Tata Power, L&T, Coal India, Hindalco, Sesa Sterlite, GAIL, Tata Motors and Hero Moto.

Among other shares, IDBI Bank is trading higher by 4% to Rs 116 after state-owned bank said that its board has cleared a proposal to raise as much as Rs 4,000 crore either through qualified institutional placement (QIP) or a follow-on equity issue.

The broader markets are outperforminmg the benchmark indices- BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices have surged by over 1% each.

The market breadth in BSE remains firm with 1,454 shares advancing and 66 shares declining.