US markets rally, Dow hits calender-year high

On Friday, the Dow and the S&P 500 ended at closing highs for 2009. The Dow Jones gained 114 points to 9,370 and the S&P 500 added 13 points to 1,010, up 49% from the 12-year closing low of early March. The Nasdaq advanced 27 points to 2,000. Earlier this week, on Tuesday, the Nasdaq surged above the 2,000 mark to end at 2,011.31 - its 2009 closing high.

The rally was being witnessed on the back of positive US manufacturing and employment data this week that pushed all three major stock indices to multi-month high.

Among the Indian ADRs, Genpact surged 3% to $43.58. Patni Computers and Dr. Reddy's gained above 2% each to $14.69 and $16.79, respectively.

IBM, Wipro and Tata Communications added 1.5% each to $119.33, $15.36 and $20.62, respectively. Tata Motors was up 1% to $11.4.

However, Sterlite was down marginally and Mahindra Satyam declined over 1% to $5.52.