Banking stocks are in a completely different orbit and are continuing the surge today as well. Many of the frontline banking stocks have touched new lifetime highs and are trading with significant gains

Other Asian markets are mixed even after the continued rally in US indices yesterday

Sensex opened at 13501 and soared to new lifetime high of 13578. The index is trading higher by 81 points at 13551 at 11.10 AM.

Nifty opened at 3876 and saw a new lifetime high of 3896. The index is now trading higher by 12 points at 3888.

Banking stocks are surging today as well. HDFC Bank is the best performer among index stocks with gains of nearly 5 per cent. ICICI Bank has rallied another 4 per cent

Among PSU banks, OBC is up more than 3.5 per cent while SBI and PNB are trading around 3 per cent each higher

Reliance Industries has recovered from yesterday's correction and is up more than a per cent

Gujarat Ambuja Cements has rallied more than a per cent on unconfirmed reports that Holcim has picked up an additional 3.5 per cent stake in the company.

Zee Tele has also recovered after correcting for the last 2 sessions and is up more than 2 per cent

Siemens has bounced back and is up more than 2 per cent. ABB has added more than 1.5 per cent and Suzlon Energy has gained nearly 1.5 per cent

ONGC has corrected after yesterday's afternoon recovery and is down nearly a per cent. BPCL has also lost nearly a per cent and Gail India is down more than 0.5 per cent

MTNL has corrected nearly 1.5 per cent after yesterday's surge and is the worst performer among index stocks. Bharti is also down nearly a per cent and VSNL has lost another 0.5 per cent

HLL also continues to slip and is down 0.5 per cent while Dabur has lost almost a per cent

Nalco has corrected more than a per cent after yesterdays up trend.

Glaxo remains weak and is down nearly 0.5 per cent

Mid-caps and small caps have shrugged off the sluggish trend, which persisted for the last two days and are rallying today. A large number of stocks are seeing very good gains in early trades.

The NSE mid-cap index is now trading with gains of over 0.85 per cent. BSE mid-cap has gained close to 0.8 per cent and the small-cap index is trading with gains of 0.75 per cent. Market breadth on the NSE is positive in early trades with nearly 1.5 stocks advancing for every declining stock.

Mid-cap pharma stocks continue to rally ahead. Marksans Pharma and Zandu Pharma are locked in 10 per cent upper circuits while Vivimed Labs has gained close to 10 per cent. Lyka Labs is up 8.5 per cent after yesterday's correction.

Lokesh Machine is continuing the up trend and is locked in 10 per cent upper circuit

Hindustan Motors, Maral Overseas, Shreyas Shipping, Calsoft and Godavari Power & Ispat are among the major mid-cap gainers.

Honda Siel Power, Shyam Tele, Nova Petro, GTN Industries, Hindustan Sanitary and IFB Industries are the major mid-cap losers.