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Stock markets had a gap up opening on Monday tracking gains in Asia on encouraging stance from the US Fed plans to continue its monetary stimulus measures coupled with bold economic reforms unveiled by China.
At 0915 hrs, the Sensex was at 20,663, up 264 points and the Nifty gained 78 points to open at 6,134.
Broader markets gained with the midcap index up 0.9% and the smallcap index advanced 0.6%.
Global Markets
Most Asian markets were trading higher led by Hong Kong's Hang Seng which was up nearly 2%. Shanghai Composite was up nearly 1% while Japan's Nikkei was up 0.4% and Straits Times was up 0.3%.
The Dow Jones and S&P 500 ended at new closing highs on Friday after Federal Reserve Chair nominee Janet Yellen commented that the US Fed will continue with its monetary stimulus measures to support the US economy.
The Dow Jones Industrial average ended up 0.5%, to end at 15,962 led by Exxon Mobil. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained nearly 0.4% at 1,798. The tech laden Nasdaq Composite Index ended up 0.3% at 3,986.
Sectors & Stocks
All the sectoral indices started in the green with gains of atleast 0.3%.
Rate sensitives like Bankex and Realty indices surged 2% and were the top sectoral gainers.
Capital Goods, Power, Teck, IT, Auto and PSU indices gained 1-1.8%.
Consumer Durables, FMCG, Oil&Gas, Metal and Health Care added 0.3-0.9%.
The only losers among the Sensex-30 were Coal India down 0.6% and Dr Reddys Lab down 0.3%. Sun Pharma was flat with a negative bias.
On the gaining side were banking names like HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and SBI up 2-3% along with L&T, Tata Steel, Bharti Airtel, Wipro, Tata Motors and ITC which added 1.6-1.8%.
Index heavyweights like ITC, Infosys, ONGC, BHEL, TCS and RIL advanced 1-1.6%.
The market breadth was positive on the BSE. 758 stocks advanced while 240 stocks declined.
