Wall Street starts off strong; Dow gains over 100 points

The US stocks began on a strong note on Monday with benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining over 100 points in the morning session, on a day when the Indian market surged a record 17 per cent bolstering the Asian equities scenario.

In the first hour of trading, the Dow shot up 104.58 points or 1.26 per cent to 8,737.22 points.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed little over one per cent to 1,698.90 points while the broad-based S&P 500 rose 1.20 per cent to 892.60 points.

Despite leading retailer Lowe's posting a substantial fall in the first quarter profits, investor sentiment appeared optimistic on hopes that the worst may be over for the US economy.

Most of the banking stocks were trading in the positive territory, following reports that Goldman Sachs has upgraded the shares of Bank of America to 'buy'.

The scrip of BofA climbed more than eight per cent to USD 11.59 whereas Citigroup jumped nearly 4 per cent to USD 3.61.JPMorgan inched up 1.49 per cent to USD 35.43 points.

Earlier, the day turned out to be historic for the Indian bourses, as the Bombay Stock Exchange's key index Sensex soared more than 2,111 points propelled by a strong victory for the country's ruling United Progressive Alliance.

The Sensex skyrocketed over 17 per cent to 14,284.21 points.

With the Sensex and NSE's benchmark Nifty Index breaching the upper circuit limit, the authorities halted trading for the day.

However, the Asian markets presented a mixed picture amid lingering concerns about the health of the economy. Japanese benchmark Nikkei 225 and Australian shares fell into red while stocks in Hong Kong and China closed in positive territory. South Korea's Kospi Index remained flat.

On the other hand, European stocks made recovery in late afternoon trading after slipping into red in the morning session.

The UK's key FTSE 100 and Germany's Dax rose more than one per cent each to 4,406.12 points and 4,789.89 points, respectively.