Markets remain firm led by heavyweights

BSE Oil & Gas, PSU, Power, IT and Metal indices have surged between 1-2%

Benchmark indices continue to maintain the upbeat trend led by buying among index heavyweight Reliance Inds and Auto shares.

By 10:00, the Sensex was up 82 points at 19,406 whereas the Nifty gained 26 points at 5,896 levels.

On the global front, US stocks fell for fourth straight trading session on Thursday after Senate Majority Harry Reid warned that a deal is likely to miss deadline, however, stocks rebounded from lows on reports that the House would reconvene Sunday, a day before the December 31 "fiscal-cliff" deadline.

The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 18.28 points to 13,096.31 at the close. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index declined 1.73 points to end at 1,418.10 while Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 4.25 points to close at 2,985.91.

Asian shares inched up on hopes of policy easing by Bank of Japan, however, concerns over US 'fiscal-cliff' issue capped gains.

China's Shanghai Composite rose 0.34% to 2,213, Singapore's Straits Times rose 0.1percent to 3,187, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.1% to 22,638 while Japan's Nikkei gained 0.7% to 10,403.

MSCI Asia Pacific index outside Japan rose 0.16% to 896.87.

Back home, the rupee today gained 7 paise to 54.87 against the dollar in early trade at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market on selling of the US currency by exporters.

BSE Oil & Gas, PSU, Power, IT and Metal indices have surged between 1-2%. Apart from Banks, all the sectoral indices are trading in green zone.

The main gainers on the Sensex at this hour include ONGC, Hindalco, Maruti Suzuki, NTPC, RIL, Sterlite, Hero Moto, Infosys and BHEL, all gaining between 1-2%.

On the losing side, Bharti Airtel, SBI, ITC, JSPL and ICICI Bank have declined between 0.2-1%.

Among other shares, Suzlon Energy is trading higher by over 4% to Rs 18.75, extending its previous day’s about 2% gain, after the foreign institutional investor, Morgan Stanley Mauritius Company acquired more than 30 million shares of the company from its promoter via an open market transaction.

Shares of public sector undertakings (PSU) oil marketing companies (OMCs) like BPCL, HPCL and IOC are trading higher by up to 4% in morning trades on reports that the Government is looking at the option of increasing diesel and kerosene prices by Rs 10 per litre in phases.

The BSE mid-cap and small-cap have gained by 0.5%.