Markets remain strong

Markets continue to trade on a strong note in the noon deals and have maintained the morning gains. The Sensex is up 320 points at 17,466 and the Nifty is up 100 points at 5,320 levels.

According to AK Prabhakar, Senior Vice President (Equity Research), Anand Rathi, "Nifty holding 4,900 is important, we have been maintaining liquidity driven rally which has its own drawback as we have seen in September 2010. We saw market top out in November 2010 then it corrected for 13 months to make a low in December 2011 and now again a liquidity driven rally."

"If market fails to hold 4900 post budget then the rally will be considered as bear market rally which is fast, swift and will fizzles out," adds Prabhakar.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei average climbed 1.5% to a fresh seven-month high in morning trades, edging near 10,000, after Greece closed its bond-swap offer to private creditors successfully, key to securing an international bailout to avoid a messy default. The index is currently at 9,987, up 2.2%. The Shanghai Composite and Hang Seng indices have advanced nearly 1% each.

Back home, ICICI bank is the top Sensex gainer, up 5.5% to Rs 909. Jindal Steel, Larsen & Toubro, Sterlite Industries, Tata Motors, State Bank of India, Maruti Suzuki, HDFC, BHEL, Coal India, Sun Pharma, Hindalco, DLF, Hero MotoCorp, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Industries are also trading higher by  1.5-5% each.

On the other hand, Mahindra & Mahindra, HUL and Wipro are among the notable losers on the Sensex.

All the sectoral indices are trading higher. The BSE Metal index is the top sectoral gainer, up nearly 4% or 408 points at 11,393 levels. Capital Goods, Bankex, Realty, Consumer Durables, Auto, PSU and Oil & Gas indices have jumped 1.4-3.4% each.

JSW Steel, Sesa Goa, SAIL, Hindustan Zinc and Bhushan Steel are among the top gainers from the metal space. From the banking sectorl, Yes Bank is the top gainer, up 6% to Rs 358. Bank of India, IDBI Bank, Axis Bank, Canara Bank and Federal Bank have also aded 2.6-5% each.

Among the individual stocks, Jet Airways (India) is trading higher by 5% at Rs 292 on hopes of resolving pilot salaries issue.

Rajesh Exports has surged 6% to Rs 136 after the company said it has cleared all it’s obligations towards the issue of Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds (FCCB) well within the required time.

Multi-Commodity Exchange (MCX), the first Indian bourse to list on an exchange, has debuted at Rs 1,387, a 34% premium against its issue price of Rs 1,032 per share on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The stock hit a high of Rs 1,426 on the BSE.

The broader markets are also trading on a firm note. The BSE mid-cap index has jumped nearly 2% or 109 points at 6,305 levels and the small-cap index is up 95 points at 6,755.

The overall breadth is positive 1,790 stocks are advancing while 785 are declining.