MUMBAI: Indian markets continued with upward momentum on Monday taking cues from global peers. Back home, traders are likely to take cues from May IIP data later in the day.

“The focus will be on the stress tests of the European banks; the results will be out on July 23. With reports indicating that the outcome may not be as grim as feared earlier coupled with encouraging US retail sales data, global equities got a lift last week. Hopefully, that trend will continue this week as well, as markets world over brace for corporate earnings.

The start back home is likely to be rather subdued. Most Asian markets are largely flat. The key event to watch out for today is the IIP data for May. There could be some softening but the overall reading should still be pretty robust. June’s inflation numbers will be out on Wednesday and is likely to witness some increase. The two economic indicators will have some bearing on the outcome of the RBI policy meeting later this month. In between the two data points we will have Infosys results,” said IIFL report.

At 10:40 am, Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex was at 17994.48, up 160.94 points or 0.90 per cent. The index touched a high of 18010.07 and low of 17875.97.

National Stock Exchange’s Nifty was at 5396.90, up 44.45 points or 0.83 per cent. The broader index hit a high of 5402.70 and low of 5351.60.

BSE Midcap Index was up 0.70 per cent and BSE Smallcap Index moved 1.07 per cent higher.

Amongst the sectoral indices, BSE Realty Index was up 1.91 per cent, BSE Metal Index advanced 1.34 per cent and BSE IT Index gained 1.28 per cent.

Idea (2.85%), Sterlite Industries (2.68%), Unitech (2.65%), Tata Motors (2.58%) and DLF (2.27%) were amongst the top Nifty gainers.

BPCL (-1.66%), Reliance Infrastructure (-0.68%), GAIL (-0.59%), Sun Pharma (-0.39%) and Cipla (-0.37%) were amongst the losers.

Market breadth was positive on the NSE with 2204 gainers against 936 losers.

Asian markets moved higher following positive data from the US. Nikkei 225 was up 0.48 per cent, Hang Seng moved 0.67 per cent up and Taiwan Weighted advanced 0.44 per cent.