August 6, 2008 - Second day sharp run up in rate sensitive and infrastructure stocks lifted markets to northwards. Cooling off in crude oil price on the NYMEX is an indication that inflation and interest rates will not go up now in near term. Sensex held above 15000 mark and Nifty is hovering around 4600.

At 11:15 am, the Sensex is up 382 points at 15,343 and Nifty up 81 points at 4,584. BSE Midcap went up 1.5% and Small cap up 0.7%.

Market breadth is also positive; about 1891 shares have advanced while 1029 shares declined. Nearly 238 shares are unchanged.

Top gainers are HDFC Bank, Maruti Suzuki and ICICI Bank while losers - Tata Power, Tata Steel, HCL Tech and Sun Pharma.

Markets @ 10:21 am : Nifty hits 4600, Sensex above 15K as global cues strong

Markets have opened sharply higher following strong global cues as US Fed kept rate unchanged at 2% and crude slipped to 3-month low at USD 118 per barrel. Buying is seen in infrastructure, auto, realty, banking, technology and power stocks. Sensex is back above 15000 mark and Nifty above 4600.

At 10:21 am, the Nifty was up 111 points at 4,614 and Sensex up 461 points at 15,422. CNX Midcap went up 98 points at 5,959. Nifty August Futures is trading at 15 points premium.

Amongst frontliners, ICICI Bank, Grasim, HDFC Bank, Tata Motors, SBI, Tata Power, Maruti, Reliance Infra, NTPC, L&T, BHEL, JP Associates, Wipro, Reliance Ind, Infosys, Satyam and TCS have gained.

Crude slipped by 19% from record highs to USD 118 a barrel on the NYMEX as there are concerns that there will be weak demand on economic slowdown in US and Europe. OPEC is unlikely to cut production before September 9 meeting.

Asian markets were trading higher. Shanghai, Nikkei, Straits Times, Kospi and Taiwan Weighted rose 1%-2.5%.

US markets rallied smartly due to dip in oil prices and steady interest rates. The Dow gained 331.62 points, or 2.94%, to 11,615.77.  The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 35.87 points, or 2.87%, to 1,284.88, and the Nasdaq composite index added 64.27 points, or 2.81%, to 2,349.83.