The Sensex is quoting at 17654, stronger by 183 points and the Nifty is at 5296, up 59 points.
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(Updated at 1420pm)
It has been a steady session of trade, sans any volatility. The Sensex has held on to its 200-plus points gains and the Nifty is comfortably perched above the 5300 mark. The Sensex is now quoting at 17692, stronger by 222 points and the Nifty is at 5309, up 68 points.
And the broader indices have gone a step further, striking 52-week highs during the course of the day. The mid-cap index has touched a high of 7,277 and the small-cap index has touched 9,300 in intraday trades, while the Sensex is still around 320 points shy of its one-year high of 18,047.86 seen on April 7, 2010.
Metal stocks continue to shine in the largecap space. Sterlite is the leading gainer on the BSE, having added 4% at Rs 165. Tata Steel is up 2.4% at Rs 486 and Hindalco has added 2.4% at Rs 145. SBI, L&T and ICICI Bank are the other leading gainers.
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The only Sensex losers are Hindustan Unilever (weaker by 0.7% at Rs 265), ACC (lower by 0.3% at Rs 849) and NTPC (down 0.2% at Rs 200).
In the broader market space, Blue Dart Express, Bharat Forge, Jet Airways, Godrej Industries and Sadbhav Engineering gained more than 5% each in mid-cap pack, while English Indian Clays, Wabco TVS India, Voltamp Transformers, Aditya Birla Money and Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision are among the leading gainers in the BSE Small-cap index that have appreciated by more than 10% each today.
The market breadth continues to be strong. Out of 2882 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 2029 advancing stocks as against 766 declines.