Sensex gains nearly 100 points; Nifty holds above 8,700

Benchmark indices are trading higher maintaining their early gains helped primarily by the sustained buying in financial stocks.
 
At 9:33AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 106 points at 28,891 and the 50-share Nifty was up 25 points at 8,720.
 
In the broader market, both the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices have performed better than the front-liners with gains of 0.4% and 0.5% each.  Market breadth in BSE is positive with 1,011 advances against 425 declines.    
 

Yesterday, a strong rally in financials, metals and index heavyweights saw the benchmark indices touching their life-time highs with the Nifty crossing the mark of 8,700 for the first time. In the BSE, 199 stocks either hit new 52 week or all-time highs.

 
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net buyers in equities to the tune of Rs 1,276 crore on Tuesday, as per provisional stock exchange data.
 
Buzzing Stocks
 
11 out of the 12 sectoral indices of BSE are in green. BSE Consumer Durables index has gained around 0.5% and is the top gainer followed by BSE Capital Goods index, up 0.5% and Bankex, up 0.4%.  
 
Metal stocks can be seen sustaining some of the gains made during yesterday’s big run. Hindalco has gained over 1%, Tata Steel is up 0.8% while Sesa Sterlite is down 0.4%.
 

Select financials are trading higher. Mortgage lender, HDFC has gained over 1%, SBI has gained around 0.9%, Axis Bank is up 0.8% and ICICI Bank is up 0.1%.
 
Among index heavyweights, ITC is trading higher by 0.3% ahead of its quarterly results to be announced later today.
Capital Goods stocks are trading firm.L&T has gained around 0.8% and BHEL is 0.2% higher.

Global Markets
 
Asian shares were trading mixed with shares in Japan witnessing profit taking after gains in the previous two sessions even as investors adopted a wait-and-watch policy ahead of the Bank of Japan's policy announcement later today. The Nikkei was down 0.5%. Meanwhile, shares in China extended gains with the Shanghai Composite was up 1.3% and Hang Seng gained 1.1% and Singapore's Straits Times was trading 0.3% higher.

 
US stocks rebounded from their day's lows to end with marginal gains on Tuesday on expectations that global central banks would announce stimulus measures to boost economy. The International Monetary Fund, in its latest World Economic Outlook report, lowered its forecast for global economic growth by 0.3% for 2015 and 2016 to 3.5% for 2015 and 3.7% for 2016
 
The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 4 points at 17,515, the broader S&P 500 rose 3 points at 2,022 and the tech laden Nasdaq gained 20 points at 4,655.