Wall Street gains further; Dow up 179 points

Wall Street rallied for a third session after a surprise gain in January retail sales and a tech rally spurred by Apple materials which beat earnings forecast. The stock was up 10%.

Retail sales surprisingly rose 0.3% from December, reflecting increased sales in cars and gasoline. Economists were expecting a drop of 0.4%. Blue chip techs were amongst the biggest gainers on the Dow. Microsoft, HP and Apple jumped almost 3%.

Alcoa gained on the back of speculation that the Aluminum giant may be a takeover target for Rio Tinto or BHP Billiton. Yahoo gained on rumors that its in talks with News Corp to combine Mysapce.

The Dow gained 178.83 points, or 1.45%, to 12,552.24. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 18.35 points, or 1.36%, to 1,367.21, and the Nasdaq composite advanced 53.89 points, or 2.32%, to 2,373.93.

A look at how the Indian ADRs performed: