Nifty opens above 8,800, Sensex up over 300 points

Indian shares witnessed a gap-up opening on Friday with the Nifty topping 8,800 mark, amid a rally in global stocks, after the European Central Bank's higher-than-expected monetary measures to boost the economy in the euro zone.
 
At 9:35AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 362 points at 29,368 and the 50-share Nifty was up 93 points at 8,854.
 
ECB has committed to purchase government bonds of Euro Zone countries worth 60 billion Euros ($69 billion) a month from March this year to September, 2016.  With commodity markets remaining soft and uncertain, it is likely the money will flow into equity markets with strong upsides, such as India.

Market expectation was that Draghi would announce a euro 50 billion per month QE program which would run for a year totalling between euro 600-700 billion.
 
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net buyers in Indian equities worth Rs 593 crore on Thursday, as per provisional stock exchange data
 
Asian markets are trading higher boosted by the ECB move and the rebound in crude oil prices after Saudi Arabia announced that King Abdullah had died and his successor, Salman, moved quickly to name his own heir to rule the world's biggest oil exporter. Nikkei has gained around 0.8%, Hang Seng index is up 0.9% and Shanghai Composite index has gained around 0.6%

 
Overnight, Wall Street jumped 1.5% after ECB launched a bigger than expected stimulus package in its attempt to revive inflation in the Euro zone. Robust U.S. economic data added to gains on Wall Street. Dow Jones industrial average and the the S&P 500 rose 1.5% each, and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.8%.

Rate-sensitive sectors were among the top sectoral gainers led by Capital Goods, Realty and Bankex indices.
 
Among the financials, HDFC, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank were among the top gainers.

Other Sensex gainers include, Tata Motors, L&T, Infosys and Sun Pharma among others.

Among other shares, Dish TV was up 4% on robust third quarter earnings. Dish TV’s December quarter results were better than expectation, with the company recording growth in most key parameters. Overall revenues were up 16.5 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) to Rs 714 crore on the back of growth in subscription revenues, up 17.4 per cent to Rs 655 crore, better product mix and price rises.

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were up 0.4% each.

Market breadth was strong with 1,093 gainers and 469 losers on the BSE.

Other Sensex gainers include, Tata Motors, L&T and ITC among others.