Indian stock markets opened strong as the central bank slashed the repo and the reverse repo rate by 50 basis points to 5% and 3.5% on Wednesday.

The 30-share index, BSE Sensex belled the day above 8,500 mark at 8,535.03, up 88.54 points, as against its last closure in which it closed with a gain of 19.20 points (0.23%).

Among sectoral indices, the major gainers list included BSE Realty, Metal and Bankex.

At 10:00, the 30-share index Sensex gained 72 at 8,518.84. Meanwhile the broad based Nifty was trading higher by 16 points at 2,658.

Major gainers in the 30-share index were ICICI Bank, SBI, HDFC Bank, Infosys and Sterlite

On the other hand, ITC, Bharti, NTPC and Sun Pharma were the major losers in the Sensex.

Worldwide markets also saw a bullish reaction. Asian stocks went up, led by commodity and financial companies, on assumption that an expanded economic stimulus plan in China will stimulate demand for raw materials as well as machinery.

US indices bounced back on Wednesday after five straight days of losses on hope of more stimulus spending from the Chinese government.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 150 points to end at 6,875.84. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index climbed 33 points to finish at 1,353.74.

National equity markets closed in the black, with the UK’s FTSE 100 index up 3.8% to 3,645.87, while Germany's DAX 30 index was up 5.4% at 3,890.94 and the French CAC-40 index gained 4.7% to 2,675.68.

Mr. Vishwas Agarwal, stock market analyst, said that BSE has support of 8,350, and some short covering can be seen upto 8,555 and 8,786 levels, in some oversold stocks including ICICI Bank, SBI, Reliance Capital, Reliance Infra and some more.

He said, “As RBI has cut Repo and Reverse Repo rate by 50 basis points, it may help in relief recovery but will not convert into a big jump.”

Mr. Agarwal added that watchful trading is possible in the stock market with profit booking from time to time.