Market's looking strong will move up further

The market is holding on to its gains. The Sensex is up 172 points from the previous close at 18,698. Nifty is at 5571, up 51 points. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are up 1.6% and 1.4% respectively. Capital goods, metal and realty stocks are attracting maximum interest. Market breadth is strong, with 864 advances against 250 declines on the NSE.

Sensex between 18,000 and 20,000 is fairly valued, says Raamdeo Agarwal of motilal Oswal Securities, on NDTV Profit. But comfort level would have been higher if the Sensex touched 20,000 by FY09, he adds. The midcap rally has been mostly speculative so far, he says. The brokerage is buying into banking and cement stocks, he says.