The banchmark indices continued to trade flat in the past one hour. The Sensex was up 38 points at 20,098 and the Nifty was higher by 9 points at 6010. But the broader markets outperformed the benchmark indices; the BSE mid-cap index was up 0.5% or 42 points at 7660 and the small-cap index was higher by 0.75% or 69 points at 9378. And the overall market breadth was extremely positive; out of 2869 stocks traded on the BSE, 1736 stocks advanced while 1011 stocks declined.
Sterlite Industries continued to stay on the top position among the sensex stocks, the stock has added 2.24% at Rs 180 folowed by Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communication, Jindal Steel, Mahindra & Mahindra and State Bank of India moved up more than 1% each.
On the other hand, Hero Honda continued to witness profit-booking for the second consecutive day, the stock was trading lower by more than 1.4% at Rs 1940. Wipro, Maruti Suzuki, Reliance Infrastructure, Cipla and TCS were the other major losers, down more than 0.6% each.
BSE Realty index led the sectoral pack, up 1.43% or 39 points at 2807, BSE Metal index was also trading higher by 159 points or 0.9% at 17,257 and PSU index added 0.76% or 71 points at 9416. The BSE Consumer Durables index was the only sectoral index trading in the red. The index is marginally down by a point at 6092.
Peninsula Land was the top gainer among the Realty stocks. The stock was trading higher by more than 3% at Rs 60 followed by Sobha Developers, Indiabulls Real Estate, HDIL, D B Realty and Unitech up more than 1.6% each. Among the metal stocks, Welspun Corp, Hindustan ZInc, Sterlite Industries, Jindal Steel and Sesa Goa were among the top gainers up more than 1.6% each. Gitanjali Gems, Titan Industries and Videocon Industries were among the top losers on the consumer durable charts.