Strong global cues lift Nifty above 5550

Indian equity benchmarks rallied smartly in opening trade, with the Nifty inching up gradually towards the 5600 level, supported by strong global cues. Infrastructure, banking, oil & gas, technology, realty and metal companies' shares were pushing up the markets.

Rahul Mohindar, viratechindia.com says that there would be lots conviction in the trading if the market manages to break its resistance at 5600. Mohindar is optimistic that the Nifty is likely to head to 5800.

Among frontliners, Infosys, Sun Pharma, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, DLF, Wipro, L&T, BHEL, Jaiprakash Associates, ACC, HPCL, Dr Reddy's Labs, Ranbaxy Labs, Reliance Inds, TCS, SBI, Bharti and ONGC were leading the markets  higher in early trade.

Manoj Singla, MD & Co- Head Product, Religare Capital Markets said he was looking at 20-25% upside on frontline indices. He feels that crude at USD 115/barrel is priced into the market. "Market will come off if crude rises further," he said.

L&T is likely to be biggest gainer in infrastructure space, according to him. The stock gained over 1%.

At 9:19 hours IST, the 50-share NSE Nifty was trading at 5,575, up 52 points and the 30-share BSE Sensex gained 179 points at 18,529.

The CNX Midcap went up 54 points to 7,800. About 535 shares advanced as against 125 shares declined on National Stock Exchange.

Midcap & Smallcap space:

Orbit Corp was up 2% and Shree Ashtavinayak up 4%.

Usha Martin surged 3.5%. Sun TV gained 1.5%.

Lovable was up another 1%. Dish TV went up 1.5% and Aptech up 2%.

Infrastructure stocks like Lanco Infra, GMR Infra, GVK Power, HCC and Punj Lloyd gained 0.5-2%. HOEC was up 1%.

However, Fame India fell 4% on profit booking. Deccan Chronicle was down 1%.

Acropetal Tech lost 8.5%.

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Global cues:

Asian markets were up on rally in US markets, tracking renewed risk appetite and hopes of economic recovery.

Shanghai, Hang Seng, Nikkei and Straits Times were up 1%. Kospi and Taiwan went up 0.5%.

The US markets ended higher led by positive earnings expectation on Thursday. Jobless claims were down by 5000 to 3,80,000.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.70% or 84.54 points at 12170.56. Nasdaq Composite added 1.41% or 38.12 points at 2736.42. Standard & Poor's 500 was up 0.93% or 12.12 point at 1309.66.

Crude was trading at USD 105.53 a barrel, down 0.04% on NYMEX and Brent crude was at USD 115.90 a barrel.

Gold lost 1.6% to USD 1433 an ounce.

F&O cues:

Total Futures Open Int up Rs 1285 crore

Total Options Open Int up Rs 740 crore

Total stock futures Open Int add 421 lakh shares in Open Int

Nifty Fut OI sheds 23.83 lk shrs in Open Int

Premium at 23.40 pts vs premium at 20 pts

Nifty Open Int PCR up at 1.34 versus 1.26

Total Put adds 29 lk shrs, Call sheds 16 lk shrs

Highest OI Outstanding at 5400 put, 5300 put and 5500 put

Nifty 5500 put adds 11.24 lakh (19%) shares in Open Int

Nifty 5600 Put adds 8.64 lakh shares in Open Int

Nifty 5300 Put adds 4.50 lakh shares in Open Int

Nifty April 5300 Put adds 3 lakh shares in Open Int

Nifty April 5500 Put adds 2.37 lakh shares in Open Int

Nifty 5300 Put adds 2.36 lakh shares in Open Int

Nifty 5400 Call sheds 7.22 lakh shares in Open Int

Nifty 5500 Call sheds 7.12 lakh shares in Open Int

Nifty 5100 Put sheds 5.19 lakh shares in Open Int

Nifty 5600 Call sheds 4.41 lakh shares in Open Int

Nifty 5300 Put sheds 3.14 lakh shares in Open Int

India VIX down 5.39% at 19.84

Kingfisher, Suzlon and Videocon in F&O curb