Markets opened the day with a huge positive gap, continuing the momentum from yesterday's massive rally. Stocks of large private banks, engineering stocks and other select frontline stocks helped the indices to new lifetime highs.

Sensex went past 11600 easily and crossed 11700 within half an hour of opening. The Nifty too went past 3500 for the first time. Profit booking emerged by mid-morning, pulling down the indices considerably.

The Sensex opened at 11600 and soared to a new lifetime high of 11711. The index is trading higher by 37 points at 11602 at 11.10 AM.

The Nifty opened at 3473 and saw a new lifetime high of 3508 in early trades. The index is trading higher by 3 points at 3476.

Private sector banking stocks are finding good interest today after underperforming for the last few months. The trigger for today's move is a huge rally in ICICI ADR yesterday.

ICICI opened firm and gained over 3 per cent before giving up part of the gains. The stock is now trading more than 2 per cent higher. HDFC Bank has added close to 3 per cent while HDFC is trading nearly 1.5 per cent higher.

OBC is the biggest gainer among index stocks, trading nearly 3.5 per cent higher.

VSNL is continuing the up trend and has added another 3 per cent. Ranbaxy is another winner, trading nearly 3 per cent higher.

Engineering stocks are firm in early trades after BHEL announced encouraging preliminary results yesterday. The stock has added over 1.5 per cent. L&T and Siemens have gained close to 1.5 per cent each.

Dabur has added 2 per cent while ITC is holding firm with gains of over 1.5 per cent.

Metal stocks are under pressure with SAIL the biggest loser among index stocks, having lost over 2.5 per cent. Tata Steel is trading nearly 1.5 per cent lower.

Select pharma stocks are under pressure despite the rally in Ranbaxy. Both Sun Pharma and Glaxo have lost around 2 per cent each.

Cement stocks Grasim and Gujarat Ambuja have lost around 1.5 per cent each on profit booking.

SCI, Bharti, Tata Chemicals and Tata Motors are among the other losers.

Mid-caps have taken a bigger tumble after opening with significant gains. The mid-cap index has lost all its gains and is now trading almost flat. Some of the popular stocks are seeing profit booking after 2 days of spectacular gains. Market breadth has weakened significantly from early trades and is now negative.

Gallantt Metal got listed on the exchanges today. Issued at Rs10, the stock opened at Rs12 on the NSE and saw a high of Rs14.2. The stock is niw trading at Rs13.3

Flex Engineering, Vakrangee Software and FCS Software are among the major gainers in mid-caps.

Kabra Extrusion, Praj Industries and Standard Industries are among the mid-cap losers.