Sensex jumps in early trade on strong global cues

Mumbai: The Sensex opened with 150 points gap up on Tuesday, following a relief rally in global markets. It soon raced up 230 points at 15,746 and the Nifty jumped 64 points to 4701, supported by banks, capital goods, metals and auto stocks. Asian markets like Hang Seng and Kospi rallied 2-2.5 per cent.

Straits Times and Taiwan Weighted gained 1-1.7 per cent. Shares of frontrunners like ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Hero Motocorp, SBI, DLF, L&T, BHEL, Coal India, Tata Motors, Kotak Mahindra Bank, JP Associates, Reliance Infrastructure, Reliance Industries, Tata Steel, Hindalco and Sterlite gained 1.5-2 per cent. TCS and Infosys were marginally higher.

However, shares of oil marketing companies lost ground after postponement of hike in petrol prices. BPCL, HPCL and IOC slipped 1.5-2 per cent.

The CNX Midcap rose 46 points to 6,141.

In the second line shares, HCC, VIP Industries, Educomp, Apollo Tyres, Jain Irrigation, GVK Power, Punj Lloyd and Nelco were up 2-3 per cent.

Network18 shot up 11 per cent on The Economic Times reports that Reliance will invest Rs 1500 crore in TV18 group.

Other media stocks like NDTV was up 5 per cent and Deccan Chronicle rose 3.7 per cent.

Ashok Leyland gained 2.5 per cent as the company reported a rise of 28 per cent in total sales for December at 9088 units as compared to previous month. Such a good growth was due to the launch of new LCV Dost in October 2011.

Titan Industries gained 2 per cent. However, IRB Infra lost 1.5 per cent as The Economic Times reports that the company will seek Rs 70 crore damage from NHAI for shelving project.

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