The local market continued its promising pace in the noon session on impressive buying in the information technology (IT) and metal stocks. All sectoral indices witnessed a decent buying interest. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke mentioning that a big incentive package could help perk up the US economy gave some boost to the stock markets across Asia.

Sentiments in the market looked better after a rally in the Asian markets. Talks about bleak corporate earnings had kept investors on the sidelines since the past few days. Nevertheless, after the announcement of good profit numbers by Infosys, investors might have just started believing that other biggies in the market, too, might come up with figures that surpass the market expectations.

The market breadth on the BSE was good with 62% stocks in the positive zone.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 306.50 points or 3.38% at 9,377.86. The index touched a high and a low of 9,387.60 and 9,207.52, respectively.

Reliance Industries up 6.11%, Infosys up 6.08%, Tata Steel up 5.69%, Rel Infra up 5.67% and TCS up 5.49% were the main gainers on the Sensex.

Sun Pharma, down 1.23%, was the sole loser on the benchmark.

The BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were up more than 1% each.

Siemens India traded at Rs 223.85 per share, up 6.04%. The company has divested its entire stake in Siemens India Systems (SISL) to a subsidiary of Siemens AG for Rs 449 crore. Siemens AG has also bundled three sectors of SISL’s software business, industry, energy and healthcare by creating a central software house under the Corporate Technology department for its captive business.

Binani Cements was trading at Rs 32.5 per share, up 3.83%. The company has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the government of Gujarat for setting up an Rs 825 crore greenfield cement plant with a capacity of 2.5 mtpa in Junagadh.

All sectoral indices on the BSE were trading on a good note.

IT up 5.51%, Metal up 5.02%, TECk up 4.73%, Oil & Gas up 4.13% and Bankex up 3% were the major gainers in the sectoral space.

Air traffic continued to nosedive in India even as airlines line up to reduce fairs to woo passengers. Air traffic declined by 17.1% in the month of December compared to same month last year. This was fifth consecutive month of declining air traffic as the economic slowdown takes the country firmly in its grip.

The broader S&P CNX Nifty was up 3.05% at 2828.65. The index touched a high and a low of 2832.20 and 2748.40, respectively.

HCL, up 8.18%, was the main gainer, while Sun Pharma, down 1.35%, was the main loser on the Nifty.

Meanwhile, the Indian government plans to break off business, transport and tourist ties with Pakistan and attempt a complete isolation of the Islamic republic in case it fails to cooperate with India on issue of bringing perpetrators of Mumbai attack to justice.

Home minister P Chidambaram said on Tuesday that Pakistan was doing nothing to help India bring to justice those responsible for the November Mumbai attacks. ‘There are many, many links between India and Pakistan, and if Pakistan does not cooperate and does not help to bring the perpetrators to heel, those ties will become weaker and weaker and one day snap,’ Chidambaram said.

Asian indices traded mostly in the green. Shanghai Composite was up 3.17%, Hang Seng added 2.19%, Nikkei 225 surged 0.29%, Straits Times soared 1.95% and Seoul Composite gained 1.28%.

On the other hand, Taiwan Weighted dropped 0.24%.

European markets will open shortly.

Wall Street has lost some of the enthusiasm that powered its late 2008 rally. The Dow Jones industrial average has taken the biggest hit, falling for five straight days as investors questioned whether they got ahead of themselves when they bet in December that the economy and corporate profits were about to recover.

Worries about earnings sent the Dow Jones industrial average down 25.41 points, or 0.30%, to 8,448.56 on Tuesday. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 1.53 points, or 0.18%, to 871.79, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 7.67, or 0.50%, to 1,546.46.

Crude futures halted a weeklong price slide on Tuesday after Saudi Arabia’s announcement that it would cut production further, if needed. The rally was also supported by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke assurance that the stimulus package could provide a ’significant boost’ to the sinking US economy.

Light, sweet crude for February delivery rose 19 cents to settle at $37.78 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after falling to $36.10 earlier, a new low for the year.