At 9:56 am, the Sensex was up 116 points at 17094 and the Nifty up 30 points at 5041.
Reliance Infra, ONGC, Idea, Rel Petro, ICICI Bank, Hindalco, Infosys, PNG, Sterlite, BHEL, L&T, ACC, Grasim and Bharti were gainers while Satyam lost ground.
L&T moved up as Lafarge acquired L&T's concrete business for enterprise value of Euro 226 million.
Cement stocks gained in early trade on the news that cement companies will cut prices by up to Rs 7/bag in some states.
Lanco Infratech continued its upmove and rose nearly 4% as the company won Rs 8000 crore Vizhinjam international terminal container project in Kerala.
GHCL also gained nearly 4% as the company is eyeing US firm Linens n Things.
Asian markets were trading higher barring Hang Seng. Nikkei 225 Average was up 230.14 points or 1.63% at 14,348.69. Jakarta Composite rose 0.75% or 18.28 points at 2,467.62.. Straits Times was up 0.51% or 16.43 points at 3,214.94. Seoul Composite surged 1.89% or 34.90 points at 1,878.65. Taiwan Weighted was up 1.30% or 117.66 points at 9,136.08. Shanghai Composite gained 0.54% or 19.65 points at 3,677.08. However, Hang Seng lost 0.34% or 88.09 points at 25,445.39.
US markets finished higher, despite profit booking in the last half-hour of trading. The Dow Jones ended 66 points higher at 12898, the Nasdaq shut shop at 2497, up just 2 points. the S&P 500 closed 6 points higher at 1,409.
Market cues:
* FIIs net buy $46.2 m in equity on May 13
* Domestic MFs net sell Rs 305.4 cr in equity on May 13
* NSE F&O Open Interest up Rs 1,400 cr at Rs 74,606 cr
F&O cues:
Futures Open Interest up Rs 614 cr
Options Open Interest up Rs 786 cr
Nifty Futures shed 8 lakh shares in Open Interest
Nifty May Futures shed 13.3 lakh shares in Open Interest
Nifty June Futures add 5.19 lakh shares in Open Interest
Nifty Open Int PCR at 1.41 Vs 1.43
Nifty Puts add 5.87 lakh shares in Open Interest
Nifty Calls add 7.06 lakh shares in Open Interest
Nifty 4900 Put adds 2.29 lakh shares in Open Interest
Nifty 4900 Put added 5.29 lakh shares in 2 days
Nifty May 5000 Put adds 65 thousand shares in Open Interest
Nifty May 5000 Call adds 1.55 lakh shares in Open Interest
Nifty May 5100 Call adds 1.55 lakh shares in Open Interest
Nifty May 5100 Call added 4.15 lakh shares in Open Int in 2 days
Stock Futures adds 1.94 cr shares in Open Interest