It is now just 200 points shy of record level of 21,200 touched in intra day trading in early 2008. Early gainers from the Sensex stocks included Hindalco, Sesa Sterlite, BPCL, NMDC and Jaiprakash Associates.

Nifty stocks that added pressure to the indices were Coal India, Dr Reddy's, NTPC and HCL Tech.

Banking stocks were the star performers in trade today with Bankex hitting a 1 month high. Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank and Axis Bank were among the gainers.

Yes Bank which reported a good set of numbers continued to see buying interest. Mid Cap stocks too rallied with notable gainers in trade being Jubilant Food, JSW Energy, Union Bank and Adani Enterprises.

Bajaj Auto shares were up after reports that the firm will launch 100 cc bike and 2 more discover bikes. Metal stocks rallied on reports of better then expected PMI data from China. Jindal Steel, Tata Steel, Sesa Sterlite and NMDC were among the early gainers.

Pharma stocks were taking a breather after a sharp rally in the last few months. Most of the stocks were trading flattish with a slight negative bias.

IT stocks on the other hand saw some profit booking with Wipro and TCS among the early losers. Meanwhile, markets across Asia were trading with losses with notable losers being the Japanese Nikkei and the Hong Kong's Hang Sang.

GoodReturns.in