Nifty up over 100 pt; ONGC, RIL, Bharti, ICICI Bank lead

At 14:18 hours IST - the Nifty remained strong though it was witnessing some profit booking at higher levels. Better-than-expected GDP (gross domestic product) numbers for the quarter-ended September 2009 and investors belief that India's exposure to Dubai is limited helped the markets to keep positive momentum on.

The overall markets looked strong though the Sensex slipped below the 17,000-mark while the Nifty was trading below 5,050 level due to weak European cues. European markets slipped over 0.5% on the back of profit booking as they rallied on Friday. But Asian markets almost closed 1-3% higher and US index futures were trading more than 0.5% higher, which were also supportive.

India's GDP grew at 7.9% in the second quarter as compared to 6.1% quarter-on-quarter and 7.7% year-on-year. For the first-half of the year, GDP growth stood at 7% as against 7.8% YoY.

The Nifty was up 104 points to 5,046 and the Sensex gained 324 points at 16,956. The broader indices went up 1.4-1.8%, as about 2,124 shares advanced while 752 shares declined on the BSE. Nearly 557 shares were unchanged.

Shares of oil & gas, telecom, technology, metal, select banking and infrastructure stocks were leading the rally. However, the sell-off in SBI, Power Grid, Hero Honda, Unitech and DLF wiped out some of the markets' gain.

Dwarikesh Sugar rose 5%, as the company reported FY09 net profit at Rs 25 crore as against net loss of Rs 25 crore. Its net sales were up 69% to Rs 462 crore.

Investors believed Dubai is an isolated event and said exposure of Indian companies to Dubai limited. Abu Dhabi will help Dubai on case to case basis.

UAE Central Bank says, "Central Bank has issued a notice to UAE banks and branches of foreign banks operating in the UAE, making available to them a special additional liquidity facility linked to their current accounts at the central bank, at the rate of 50 basis points above the 3 months EIBOR (Emirates interbank offered rate)".

In the midcap space, Thomas Cook and GMDC gained 12% each. AIA Engineering, Jindal Saw and Havells India were up 6% each.  However, Glenmark, Shriram City, Emami, Allahabad Bank and ING Vysya Bank fell 1-4.4%.

In the smallcap space, Cambridge Solutions shot up 18.70%. Resurgere Mines, Mahindra Forgings, VIP Industries and Shrenuj & Company were up 10-12.4%. However, PVP Ventures, Advani Hotels, Binani Industries, Brigade Enterprises and Kanani Industries fell 2-3.6%.

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