European stocks send Sensex higher, TCS up 6%

A positive opening on European bourses has taken the benchmark indices to intraday highs. At 1250 hours, the Sensex was trading 136 points higher at 16,478 and the Nifty rose 44 points to 4,942. Tuesday's trade, so far, resembles Monday's gains, when the markets broke on the upside only in the second half of the day.

European markets were trading in the green, led by France's CAC 40 (up over 2 per cent) and Britain's FTSE (up1.5 per cent). Most Asian markets closed with moderate gains, further strengthening sentiments. South Korea's Kospi gained 4 per cent, Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng rose 1.5 per cent and Japan's Nikkei finished with over 1 per cent gains.

On the D-Street, FMCG stocks saw profit booking. All other sectoral indices rose, led by IT stocks that surged nearly 4 per cent. Consumer durables, capital goods and realty stocks saw over 1 per cent gains while banking stocks also saw buying interest.

On the Sensex, 19 of the 30 stocks were trading higher, led by TCS that jumped over 6 per cent. Infosys was up over 3.5 per cent. Reliance Industries extended gains and rose over 1 per cent. DLF also advanced nearly 2 per cent.

Coal India remained under selling pressure because of workers' demand of raising wages. The market breadth had significantly improved, with 72 per cent stocks advancing on the BSE 500 index.

Commenting on the markets, Shankar Sharma, Director & Global Equity Strategist of First Global said, "I don't hold out much hope for any sizeable move that can take you to the highs or near the highs because you can get a 1,000 point rally on the Sensex... that will not do too much good...what is required is a broad based move ... which takes up 70-80 per cent of the market...I don't see that happening ...there are far many factors against that happening."