Sensex up nearly 250 points as buying intensifies; Bank, realty stocks rally

With investors indulging in some heavy buying, betting on hopes that the government will stick to its reforms agenda and come out with positive measures to fix the fiscal gap, the Indian stock market is up sharply in positive territory this morning. A firm trend in Asian markets following positive news out of Europe where the eurozone ministers and the International Monetary Fund have reached an agreement on Greece's bailout plan, is also aiding sentiment.

The Sensex is now up 243.30 points or 1.3% at 18,780.31, while the Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange is up with a gain of 70 points or 1.25% at 5705.90.

Realty stocks are in demand. Mirroring strong gains posted by key stocks in that space, the BSE Realty index has surged 2.7% now. Bank, consumer durables, FMCG, capital goods, information technology, metal and automobile stocks are also mostly trading higher, and mirroring their upmove, the respective sectoral indices are all trading higher by 1% - 1.6%. Select oil, pharmaceuticals, power and PSU stocks are also trading in positive territory.

Among the stocks in the Realty index, Unitech is up more than 8%. DLF, DB Realty, HDIL, Indiabulls Real Estate, Oberoi Realty, Prestige Estates and Sobha Developers are up 2% - 3%, while Anant Raj Industries and Parsvnath Developers are trading higher by 1.5% and 1.3%, respectively.

Among the stocks in the Bankex, HDFC Bank is up 3%, ICICI Bank is trading higher by a little over 1% and State Bank of India is up 0.5%. Axis Bank, Kotak Bank and Yes Bank are up 1.5% - 3%.

IndusInd Bank is gaining about 3.5%. The stock is up following an announcement from the bank that it has opened the issue for qualified institutional placement. “The bank proposed to issue 52.1 million shares of Rs 10 each via QIP route,” IndusInd Bank said in a filing. The bank might raise around Rs 2,000 crore (approx $ 350 million), based on the current market price.

L&T Finance Holdings is trading more than 3% up following the company selling 7.9 million shares of Federal Bank through bulk deals today. The company would receive around Rs 300-350 crore from the deal.

In the currency market, the rupee moved up to 55.60 against the U.S. dollar in early trades this morning, gaining 13 paise. On Monday, the partially convertible Indian currency had ended at 55.73 against the greenback, recording a loss of 22 paise.