Sensex surges 200 points

Infosys has acquired Panaya, a leading provider of automation technology 

At 9:31AM, the S&P BSE Sensex is trading at 29304 up 210 points, while NSE Nifty is trading at 8,859 up 54 points.

Confidence seems to be setting into the market and investors are gearing for further upmove ahead of the budget.

Last week’s market gains saw the combined market cap of 7 out of the top 10 Sensex companies increasing by around Rs. 54,000 crore.

SBI and HDFC Bank led the gains and could continue to shine today.

With most results out of the way, the attention will shift to global cues and expectations from the budget. 

For today, WPI Inflation numbers will also be watched.

OMCs will react to the increase in retail selling price of petrol and diesel by Rs. 0.82 a litre and Rs.  0.62 a litre respectively.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is likely to announce the merger of commodity futures market regulator — Forward Markets Commission (FMC) — with the capital market regulator SEBI in his Budget speech on February 28, says a report.

The highways sector could see a near doubling of allocation to Rs 45,000 crore as part of the government's push to infrastructure in the coming budget owing to confidence among planners that quick results can be achieved in this sector if funds are made available, a report stated.

India’s foreign exchange (forex) reserves touched yet another all time high as it jumped by $2.32 billion in the week ended February 6 to $330.21 billion. A report says that this is now adequate to finance 10 months' import but they cover only 70% of India's external debt.