Nifty maintains 5,000 mark, financials lead

Markets continue to hold onto their gains with the Sensex and the Nifty trading above 16,600 mark and 5,000 levels, respectively. At 1130 hrs, the Sensex was up 126 points at 16,627 and they Nifty gained 56 points at 5,012 levels.

On the global front, Asian shares maintain the firm activity after news that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was seeking to boost its resources to tackle the euro zone debt crisis. Hang Seng, Shanghai Composite, Nikkei, Strait Times, Kospi and Taiwan Weighted have surged by nearly 1% each.

Back home, BSE Bankex, Metal, Realty and Power indices are leading the strong rally, both zooming by almost 2%. Apart from Technology, all the major BSE sectoral indices are trading in green zone.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries has extended yesterday’s rally triggered by the company announcement that its board will consider and approve on 20 January 2012 a proposal for buyback of the company's equity shares. The stock has jumped by nearly 2%.

From the banking and financial space, ICICI Bank has zoomed by over 2.5%. SBI, HDFC and HDFC Bank have surged between 1-2%. HDFC Bank has gained ahead of third quarter results today. Banking stocks rose on expectations that the central bank will start cutting interest rates in the coming months after December headline inflation fell to a 2-year low 7.47%.

Metal stocks like Tata Steel, Hindalco and Sterlite have zoomed by nearly 3% each after the announcement of strong Chinese economic data early this week.

Interest rate sensitive Realty pack is consistently performing well for last one week on expectations that the RBI will start cutting interest rates in the coming months to support the slowing economy. DLF has zoomed by nearly 3.5%.

Among Power pack, Tata Power is the top Sensex gainer, up by nearly 5%. NTPC has gained by over 2.5%. Power stocks have gained after power companies top officials met with PM yesterday.

Maruti Suzuki, Hero MotoCorp, Tata Motors and Bajaj Auto have gained between 1-3%.

However, Telecom major Bharti Airtel has fallen by nearly 1% on tax demand notice of Rs 1,067 crore from I-T department.

IT stocks continue to reel under selling pressure. TCS has declined marginally post Q3 results announced yesterday. Wipro and Infosys are down by nearly 1% each.

The broader markets are performing in line with the benchmark indices, both gaining by nearly 1%.

Den Networks rallied 10% as sources reports that RIL’s arm bought 1% stake in the company.

Mindtree has zoomed after the announcement of Q2FY12 results. The company's Q3 consolidated net profit was up at Rs 60.6 crore versus Rs 30.5 crore (QoQ).

Mahindra Satyam has surged by over 3% on reports that US court dismissed lawsuit filed by Upaid against the company.

Financial Tech has gained 4% on reports that MCX IPO is likely to hit capital market in February.

The overall market breadth in BSE remains positive with 1,531 shares advancing and 736 shares declining.