Extending their four-day gaining streak today, 26 August 2009, Indian stock markets opened positively on the back of encouraging worldwide signals.

During the past four trading sessions, the BSE Sensex has gained 878.83 points from 14,809.64 on 19 August 2009 to 15688.47 on

Tuesday, 25 August 2009. Equities have gone up sharply this year on account of heavy buying by foreign funds.

The top gainers in the list were IT, realty and power stocks. BSE Midcap and Smallcap index also remained up, and gained 0.84% and 0.97% respectively.

Today, the 30-share index, BSE Sensex belled the day at 15,763.09, up 74.62 points, as against its last closure in which it gained 59.72 points.

Among sectoral indices, BSE IT was the major gainer, which surged 1.65%, Technology rose 1.34%, Realty increased 1.07%, Power climbed 0.93%, while BSE FMCG dropped 0.70%, Consumer durables was down by 0.07%.

At 09.55 a.m., Sensex gained 68 points at 15,756.47 after hitting a high of 15,766.06 and a low of 15,756.47. In the meantime, Nifty was trading up by 19.65 points at 4,679. It touched a high of 4,683.25 and a low of 4,659.20. (09.55 a.m.)

The gainers list included DLF (1.18%), Infosys Tech (1.14%), NTPC (0.90%), Bharti Airtel (0.85%), Mah & Mah (0.81%), and Hindalco Ind (0.79%).

On the other hand, the top losers were ITC (0.52%), ONGC (0.12%), and HDFC Bank (0.10%).

Asian stocks also advanced, led by auto manufacturers, after an increase in US consumer confidence and a smaller-than-estimated fall in American home rates.

Japanese benchmark index Nikkei 225 gained 141.11 points to trade at 10,638.47. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index surged 83.31 points at 20,528.08, while China’s Shanghai Composite gained 44.23 points to trade at 2,960.03.

European stocks rose continuing a 10-month peak for the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index, as confidence among US buyers went up and telecom giants rallied. UK’s benchmark index FTSE 100 climbed 20.57 points to settle at 4,916.80. French benchmark index CAC 40 zoomed 28.44 points to end at 3,680.61. Germany’s benchmark index DAX surged 37.34 points to close at 5,557.09.