Markets gain further

The markets opened with decent gap up on the back of strong cues from the global markets. Bulls were in full charge in the opening trade today after yesterdays lacklusture performance.At 11:55 am Sensex is trading at 15080.91 up 170 points. Nifty is up 49.55 points at 4436.70.

Hindustan Unilevcer was the top gainer among the Sensex constituents. The stock was up 3.10% to Rs 208.65 on 1.21 lakh shares. The stock had surged on reports Colgate-Palmolive is interested in all or part of Unilever's consumer-product market and Unilever and Colgate could also go for merger.

Tata Steel (up 1.92% to Rs 668), Cipla (up 1.90% to Rs 215.70) and Ambuja Cements (up 1.60% to Rs 129.85) were the other gainers.

The market will be closely watching the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data for May 2007, which will be released today, 12 July 2007. IIP hit an eleven-year high of 13.6% in April 2007 against 9.9% in April 2006. The surge in IIP was due to growth in the manufacturing sector.

HUL, BHEL, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communication are among the major gainers in Sensex. Sensex doesnot have any stock in red today.