Markets firm in late-morning deals

Banks and realty shares lead

Markets continued to trade firm in late morning deals with buying interest visible in realty, auto and consumer durables shares. The Sensex was up 110 points at 19,892. Nifty was up 31 points at 6,030.

"The main concern for the rangebound pattern on the Nifty is that the mid-caps are not performing and in the large-cap space there is stocks specific movement," said Anil Manghnani, Chairman, Modern Shares & Stock Brokers.

Asian stocks rose as US jobs and manufacturing data boosted optimism in the US. Nikkei was up 0.7% at 11,278. Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite were up less than half a per cent each.

The rupee breached the key 53-level by gaining 26 paise to trade at fresh three-and-a-half-month high of 52.93 in early trade today against the dollar on sustained selling of the American currency by exporters amid continued capital inflows.

BSE realty index jumped 1.7% at 2,251. Auto and consumer durables indices also showed strength and were up 1% each. Meanwhile, BSE healthcare index slipped 0.5% at 8,037.

Tata Motors surged 3% at Rs 293. HDFC was up 2.3% followed by ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank.

IT stocks rose on positive economic data in US, the biggest outsourcing market for the Indian IT firms. TCS gained 1% while Wipro added 0.5% at Rs 410.

On the other hand, BHEL slipped 1.9% at Rs 221. Cipla also witnessed selling pressure and was down 2% at Rs 406. Dr Reddy's, ONGC and Tata Power were some of the other key losers.

Mahindra & Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki and Hero MotoCorp traded on a flat note following reports which showed a muted volumes growth for January as high interest rates dissuaded buyers from making purchases.