Markets open higher, Sensex above 19,500 mark

Sensex gained 59 points at 19,543 levels in opening trades

Markets have started the trading session on a higher note with Sensex gaining 59 points at 19,543 levels and Nifty surged 8 points at 5,911 mark.

Markets are likely to consolidate this week as investors will remain cautious ahead of key macroeconomic data such as industrial production and inflation which is expected in the early part of the week.

India’s third national-level stock exchange, the MCX-SX, will go live with equity cash and derivatives trading from today. The Financial Technologies-promoted bourse was inaugurated by Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Saturday. MCX-SX will trade 1,116 equity stocks on its platform under the permitted category rules.

In the US markets, strong economic data buoyed global equity markets, lifting the Nasdaq to a 12-year closing high and the S&P 500 to a five-year high, while the yen soared after Japan's finance minister said its recent drop had gone too far, too fast.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 0.35 percent at 13,993. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX closed up 0.57 percent at 1,518. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.91 percent to 3,194.

In Asia, almost all the major markets are closed for the day on account of Chinese new year holidays.