Markets near day's high

The Sensex is now near its day's high and is now at 17,781, up 137 points. The NSE Nifty is at 5,325, up 42 points.
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(Updated at 1230hrs)

The Sensex has firmed up on the back of fresh buying in auto and realty stocks. The Sensex is now at 17,712, up 67 points. The NSE Nifty is at 5,304, up 22 points.

Among the Sensex-30 stocks, Mahindra & Mahindra, which is adjusted post the stock split, has soared 4.5% to Rs 558. Hindalco has advanced 3% to Rs 184. Sterlite, Sun Pharma, ACC, DLF, HDFC and BHEL have added 2% each on the BSE.

Infosys continues to be the major dragger, down 2% at Rs 2,720. Tata Motors and TCS are down 1% each at Rs 739 and Rs 817, respectively.

The market breadth has turned negative, out of 2,769 shares traded, 1,374 have advanced and 1,293 have advanced so far on the BSE.

Among the sectoral indices, realty and auto indices have added 1% each on the BSE.

Mahindra & Mahindra have added 4% and Bajaj Auto has advanced 2.5% on the auto index.

On the other hand IT index has slipped 1.5%.