NEW DELHI: Domestic markets kicked off Friday's session on a firm note, tracking positive cues from Asian markets and overnight gains in US stocks.
Asian shares traded mildly higher as upbeat US economic news and solid company earnings offered a respite from the interminable Sino-US trade saga, Reuters reported.
Japan's Nikkei bounced 0.7 per cent in early trade, while the main Australian index added 0.5 per cent.
In overnight trade US stocks jumped as positive US housing data added to the global optimism.
Moreover, buying in banking, IT and FMCG stocks propelled markets upwards nearly half a per cent.
At around 9:30 am, Sensex was trading 193 points or 0.52 per cent higher at 37,587, while its NSE barometer Nifty was up 43 points, 0.39 per cent at 11,300."We expect Nifty to resolve out of last four sessions consolidation (11,30011,100).
This would lead to a conclusion of the corrective phase, in turn paving the way to extend ongoing pullback towards 11,500 in coming weeks.
In the process, we expect volatility to remain elevated owing to expectations of General Election outcome.
However, we do not foresee the Nifty breaching the key support of 11,000 ahead of the election outcome," said ICICI Securities in a note.The markets would keep an eye on stocks such as Dr Reddys Labs, Bajaj Auto, IOC, UPL, Bajaj Holdings, Balkrishna Industries, CESC, PI Industries and Zee Learn which will report their March quarter results today.
In the 30 pack Sensex, 22 stocks were in the green while eight were in the red.YES Bank was the biggest gainer, jumping nearly 6 per cent amid value buying.
The stock suffered hefty losses in the past two trading session.
Other gainers were Bajaj Finance (up 2.64 per cent), Coal India (up 1.76 per cent), Hero MotoCorp (up 1.27 per cent), and HDFC (up 1.21 per cent).On the other hand, Tata Motos was the biggest loser, falling over 1 per cent.
Among other losers were -- NTPC (down 0.79 per cent), Infosys (down 0.73 per cent), Tata Steel (down 0.72 per cent), ONGC (down 0.51 per cent) and Vedanta (down 0.28 per cent).BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap traded in line with benchmark Sensex, gaining 0.35 per cent and 0.43 per cent respectively.BSE sectoral space appeared mixed with BSE realty topping the gainer chart, up 1.07 percent lead by realty heavyweight DLF.