Sensex holds early gains; ICICI, Infosys, L&T, SBI lead

Indian shares retained their early gains led by buying interest in ICICI Bank, Infosys and L&T. ITC, Reliance Industries, Bharti and SBI too were quite supportive. Top car maker Maruti Suzuki recouped its entire losses on short covering; the stock fell 2% in early trade due to weak numbers in June quarter and problems at its Manesar plant.

The BSE benchmark gained 195 points or 1.16% at 17,034.19 and the NSE benchmark rose 57.55 points or 1.13% to 5,157.40, but the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were up 0.75% each.

Country's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank extended gains, rising 3.5% on further buying interest after strong Q1 numbers while its rivals State Bank of India and HDFC Bank were up 1% each. The buying in banks may be ahead of Reserve Bank of India's quarterly monetary policy review that scheduled for July 31. Majority of experts don't expect any change in policy rates and cash reserve ratio as they feel the inflation is still above RBI's comfort level of 7%.

Infosys, India's No. 2 software services exporter rallied 1.5% whereas its rivals TCS and Wipro were under pressure.

Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro and top telecom operator Bharti Airtel shot up nearly 2%.

Cigarette major ITC, oil & gas producer Reliance Industries and commercial vehicle major Tata Motors gained over 0.6%.

Pharma majors (known defensive stocks) Sun Pharma and Cipla were up 2% each.

Asian markets too traded higher on hopes that the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank will deliver new measures to give a boost to sluggish economies. Nikkei, Straits Times, Kospi and Taiwan Weighted were up 0.6%-1% while Hang Seng rose 1.5%.