Sentiments remained bullish on the Thursday's morning trade and domestic benchmarks have made a gap-up start following rally across the globe. On the global front, the US markets got a rebound from recent selling overnight on reports that German and European Union officials have sought solutions for Spain's weakened banks. Also Federal Reserve said in its Beige Book summary that US economic growth picked up over the two prior months. Moreover, all the Asian peers were trading in the green at this point of time on hopes that global policy makers will take steps to revive the slowing economy. Back home, sustained buying in mostly all the key heavyweights along with broader indices supported BSE's -- Sensex -- and NSE's -- Nifty -- to regain their crucial 16,550 and 5,000 mark respectively. The sentiments also got some boost as rupee strengthened against the dollar on Thursday. The rupee was at 55.14 per dollar, stronger than its previous close of 55.36. Meanwhile, banking shares have extended yesterday's gain on hopes of a rate cut by the Reserve Bank in the upcoming policy review which is scheduled to be announced on June 18, 2012. Moreover, shares of FMCG companies have extended the rally on hopes of good rainfall this year will help increase farm output, which will help increase income, thereby boosting sales. The broader indices were going neck to neck with benchmarks. The market breadth on the BSE was positive; there were 1,002 shares on the gaining side against 413 shares on the losing side while 53 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex opened at 16,578.01; about 89 points higher compared to its previous closing of 16,454.30, and has touched a high and a low of 16,621.32 and 16,577.31 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 16,598.01, up by 143.71 points or 0.87%. There were 28 stocks advancing against just 2 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a strong start with 68.26% stocks advancing against 28.13% declines. The broader indices too were trading with great traction; the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices surged 0.65% and 0.63% respectively.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Metal up by 1.59%, Power up by 0.93%, Bankex up by 0.93%, Oil and Gas up by 0.88% and CG up by 0.87%. While, there were no losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 2.28%, Tata Power up by 2.18%, Sterlite Industries up by 2.14%, ICICI Bank up by 1.91% and Infosys up by 1.74%. On the flip side, TCS down by 1.20% and M&M down by 0.84% remained the only losers.

Meanwhile, a day after government unveiled a seven pronged strategy to boost exports, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) too has expressed its commitment to encourage the nation's exports. The central bank's Executive Director G Padmanabhan opined that various seminars have been organized in different cities to address the concerns of exporters.

Stating that the RBI is taking steps to rein in inflationary pressure on the economy, the RBI official also urged banks to bring transparency into their functioning to help exporters. The nation's shipment outwards expanded by 21 percent to $303.7 billion in previous financial year. The central bank in its first mid-quarter review of monetary policy for 2012-13 on June 18 is widely expected to announce monetary easing measures to spur growth in Asia's third largest economy, which slumped to a nine-year low of 5.3 percent during the last quarter of 2011-12.

The government on June 5, 2012 unfurled a series of sops to meet the $360 billion exports target, 20 percent higher than last fiscal year's figures, amid a global downturn that is seriously threatening to disrupt the country's growth momentum. While, the measures announced by government include subsidized loans and other sops, focusing on non-traditional markets in Latin America and Africa, they also have sought to provide a boost to labor intensive sectors, particularly textiles, to beat the impact of a slowdown in Europe and the US.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,035.35; about 20 points higher compared to its previous closing of 4,997.10, and has touched a high and a low of 5,042.60 and 5,028.55 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,033.20, higher by 36.10 points or 0.72%. There were 41 stocks advancing against 9 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Sterlite Industries up by 2.30%, Tata Power up by 2.18%, Tata Steel up by 2.18%, Sesa Goa up by 1.93% and ICICI Bank up by 1.18%.

On the flip side, TCS down by 1.14%, Kotak Bank down by 0.80%, M&M down by 0.53%, Bank of Baroda down by 0.49% and BPCL down by 0.34% were the few losers on the index.

All the Asian equity indices were trading in the green; Shanghai Composite gained 3.60 points or 0.16% to 2,313.15, Hang Seng Index surged 236.16 points or 1.28% to 18,756.69, Jakarta Composite climbed 37.85 points or 0.99% to 3,879.18, KLSE Composite advanced 5.98 points or 0.38% to 1,575.41, Nikkei 225 soared 107.78 points or 1.26% to 8,641.31, Straits Times Index rose 4.03 points or 0.15% to 2,764.86, KOSPI Composite Index jumped 47.53 points or 2.64% to 1,849.38 and Taiwan Weighted ascended 34.74 points or 0.49% to 7,090.89.