Sensex maintains uptrend; TCS, BHEL, ICICI Bank, Wipro lead

The benchmark Sensex added another 150 points in morning trade today at 10:55 hours and the Nifty was holding the 5500 mark quite smartly, drove by financial, capital goods, metal, auto, technology and select healthcare companies' shares.

Global cues too were quite supportive though Middle East & North Africa tensions have not eased yet. Among Asian markets - Hang Seng, Straits Times, Kospi and Taiwan gained 0.5-0.8%; Shanghai and Nikkei were flat. Even the US markets ended with 0.5% gain yesterday.

Ridham Desai of Morgan Stanley too believes that India's biggest tail risk is that the West Asian crisis is prolonged and oil prices stay higher for longer. The other risks, such as political uncertainty, bad monsoons or volatility in DM growth seem less potent for now, he added. Notwithstanding the risk, he said, they remained buyers with a 12-month view. "We are adding ICICI Bank and GAIL to our focus list by replacing SBI and Adani Power."

The 30-share BSE Sensex gained 135 points at 18,341 and the 50-share NSE Nifty went up 37 points to 5,517. The broader indices too jumped higher, with the BSE Midcap & Smallcap indices gaining nearly 1%.

The moves have a swifter, the gains sublime but the consensus remains the same