The 30-share index Sensex continued its positive run on account of heavy buying activity seen across the board.

Banking, realty, oil & gas, auto stocks led the advances, while some IT stocks went down.

BSE Midcap and Smallcap gained more than 1% each.

At 1:14 p.m., Sensex stood at 15,456.41, up 288.59 points, after touching a high of 15,488.06 and a low of 15,367.97, whereas the broad based Nifty gained 69.10 points at 4,598.60, after hitting a high of 4,616.00 and a low of 4,529.35.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Security and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has approved new guidelines for currency future. The banks would participate in the forex future after the approval of RBI. The new guidelines would be effective from August 6.

The currency exchange will be allowed in US dollars or in Indian Rupees. The RBI will issue future guidelines from time to time on currency exchange issue. The banks with net worth of Rs 500 crores and minimum CRAR of 10 per cent are to be considered eligible for future trade.

Manila  - Philippine share prices soared 2.81 per cent on Monday on optimism over easing world oil prices and Wall Street's strong performance last week.

The 30-share composite index gained 75.71 points to close at 2,768.52 from Friday's finish of 2,692.81.

A total of 3.774 billion shares worth 3.073 billion pesos (69.840 million dollars) were traded.

Gainers led losers 83 to 34, while 46 issues were unchanged.

Indian Equities opened strongly today (August 11) because of encouraging crude oil’s slide, which kept the outlook positive across worldwide markets.

In addition the gain was led by good buying action witnessed in key stocks.

Today, the 30-share Index, BSE Sensex opened at 15,430.31, up 262.49 points, and soon it touched a high of 15,470.70.

The majority of Asian stocks benefited today, led by banking institutions and manufacturers, after last week’s reduction in commodity prices, which encouraged the positive view of business earnings and relieved inflation worries.

Tokyo  - Stocks opened higher Monday in Tokyo on mainly export-oriented issues on the back of a weak yen and Wall Street's gains before the weekend.

The Nikkei 225 Stock Average soared 225.96 points, or 1.72 per cent, to 13,394.37.

The broader Topix index of all first-section issues was also up 16.31 points, or 1.29 per cent, at 1,276.24.

On currency markets at 9 am (0000 GMT), the dollar was quoted at 109.65-70 yen, down from Friday's 5 pm quote of 109.84-85 yen.

In volatile trade, the stock markets overcame the initial setback on Friday (August 08) with the benchmark Sensex gaining more than 50 points to remain above 15,000-level at the closing time after declining below this crucial level during late morning trade.

Finally, the 30-share bellwether index on the Bombay Stock Exchange ended the day at 15,167.82, up 50.57 points, on account of some buying action witnessed in metal and capital goods stocks.