FIRST TRADE: Indices open at fresh highs; Nifty at 26,012, Sensex up 7 pts

Indian equities cheering global mood started higher on the weekly expiry day. At the start, Sensex was up 0.01 per cent or 7.06 at 85,176.93, while the Nifty was up at 26,012.4, up 0.03 per cent or 8.25 points.

Sectorally, while IT and FMCG pack were resilient, all others traded in the red.

Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services said, "There are no immediate near-term triggers that can take the market sharply up or down. Up moves may attract selling by FIIs who are likely to move some more money to China and Hong Kong since these markets are cheap and are witnessing an uptrend now. But FII selling is unlikely to push the market down significantly since the ample domestic liquidity can easily absorb such selling. A range-bound market is the near-term scenario and, therefore, the real action will be stock-specific.

Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities said, "While India's growth fundamentals remain resilient despite global concerns and Middle-East tensions, investors need to be mindful of the valuations getting expensive after the recent upsurge. With the current bullish momentum underway, aggressive targets for Nifty are seen at 26500-27000 zone while the index is likely to find support at 24755."

Meanwhile, Asian stocks advanced with the Japan's Nikkei up a sharp over 2 per cent. The market sentiment remained upbeat over stimulus measures in China and tech stocks logged sharp gains tracking strong earnings reported by US peer Micron.