The markets opened with gap up on the back of strong cues from the US markets, however the Asian cues were not very encouraging today. Buying was seen across the sectors in the early trade today.

At 9:56 am, Sensex was up 270 points at 19971 and Nifty was up 71 points at 5968. Major gainers in the early trade were Rel Energy, RPL, Essar Oil, ACC, NTPC, ITC, Hindalco, MTNL, ICICI Bank, HUL.

Asian markets: Asian markets mostly rose today, boosted by a higher close on Wall Street. Hong Kong's Hang Seng surged 0.43% or 117.39 points at 27,731.82, Japan's Nikkei gained 0.29% or 43.21 points at 15,197.82, Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted rose 0.29% or 25.83 points at 8,790.65, Singapore's Straits Times was up 0.44% or 15.01 points at 3,455.97 and South Korea's Seoul Composite was flat at 1,925.39.