Steady opening for Sensex

The markets had a stable opening where the Sensex gained 88 points at 18,096 and the Nifty added 17 points at 5,413 to start the day. In the broader markets, the midcaps was up 0.4% and the smallcaps gained 0.2% as compared to the Sensex, up 0.4%

Among the sectoral charts, Realty started the day on the positive note with a gain of 1% followed by IT, FMCG and Metal. On the other hand, Health Care was the only sector that opened in the negative, down 0.5%

On the Asian front, the stocks climbed helped by a fall in the U.S. jobless rate which boosted stocks on Wall Street.

Japan's Nikkei average rose to a nine-month high, following a weaker yen against the dollar and after generally strong Japanese corporate earnings last week.The benchmark Nikkei gained 1% and rose to a high of 10,644, the benchmark's highest level since May 6.

In the other markets, Seoul Composite is up 1.5% at 2,104, Jakarta Composite and KLSE Composite has added 0.3% - 0.5%. Straits Times is flat at 3,212 while Hang Seng is the only index trading in the red, down 0.1% at 23,876.

Markets in China, Taiwan and Vietnam continue to remain shut on account of last week's Lunar New Year.

Reliance Communications, ONGC up 2% followed by Bharti Airtel, DLF,Jaiprakash Associates, Hero Honda, Mahindra & Mahindra,HDFC Bank,Tata Steel,Infosys,Sterlite and TCS up 1% each were the top gainers in the opening trades.

On the losers side were Cipla down 3%, ICICI Bank, BHEL,Hindalco,HDFC which lost 0.2% - 1%

The market breadth was positive.Of the total 1304 stocks traded on the BSE, 831 stocks had advanced while 429 had declined.