Sensex gains 250 pts on global cues; ICICI Bank leads

The BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty started off Friday's trade with 1.6% gap up following rally across the globe led by ECB President Mario Draghi's comments on Eurozone.

The BSE benchmark shot up 255.58 points or 1.54% to 16,895.40 and the NSE benchmark was up 81.75 points or 1.62% to 5,124.75.

Among Asian markets, Hang Seng, Kospi and Taiwan Weighted rallied 2% each. Nikkei gained 1% while Shanghai and Straits Times were flat.

The US markets yesterday closed with 1.7% gains and even European markets surged in the second half of trade after European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi said, "ECB is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro. And believe me, it will be enough."

Back home, country's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank surged 4% ahead of Q1 earnings today. Analysts on an average expect the net profit to grow by 30% YoY to Rs 1,730 crore.

Tata Motors bounced back with 3% gains as the stock had got butchered quite badly in previous sessions.

Sterlite Industries rose 4% after better than expected numbers in the quarter ended June 2012. ACC too gained 3% on strong results yesterday after market hours.

Among others, Tata Steel, Hindalco Industries, Sesa Goa, Bharti Airtel, State Bank of India, PNB, Bank of Baroda, Axis Bank, State Bank of India, Reliance Infrastructure, JP Associates, M&M, Infosys and Wipro gained more than 1.5%.

HCL Tech, ITC and HUL were up around 0.5-1%.

However, Sun Pharma was the only loser, falling 0.26%.

The CNX Midcap Index went up 79 points to 7,144 as about four shares advanced for every share declining on the National Stock Exchange.

In the second line shares, SpiceJet went down 11% and Sun TV tanked 20% after Central Bureau of Investigation said Kalanithi Maran (who holds stake in both companies) got Rs 550 crore bribe in Aircel-Maxis deal.

Parsvnath Developers crashed 20% in early trade, but immediately trimmed losses to 5%.

TVS Motor fell 1% as analysts feel the company will disappoint on every count in first quarter results that will be announced today.

MTNL was up 2.7%. However, Tulip Telecom, Pipavav Defence and Monnet Ispat gained 5-9%.

JK Lakshmi Cement surged 4% and Bata was up 1% after good numbers in the quarter ended June 2012. 

SKS Microfinance rose 5% as Deutsche Securities bought 9.15% stake in the company via QIP.

Sintex, GMR Infra, Kingfisher, HCC, Shree Renuka and Bajaj Hindusthan were up 2-4%.

Wockhardt moved up 2% as the company sold its nutrition business to Dannone for Rs 1280 crore.

Amar Remedies, Sujana Towers and Pradip Overseas plunged 9-20%.