The markets have been steady in the past one hour. The Sensex is now at 17,171, up 176 points, and the Nifty is at 5,139, up 50 points. The mid-cap and small cap indices are also up more than a per cent each at 6815 and 8631 respectively.
Among the Sensex-30 stocks, Mahindra & Mahindra has soared 4.1% to Rs 1120, Hero Honda has strengthened 2.9% at Rs 1909 and SBI has hardened by 2.8% at Rs 2105.
Jaiprakash Associates, ITC and ICICI Bank are the notable gainers.
On the other hand, Hindustan Unilever has declined 1% to Rs 240, Reliance Infra has weakened 0.4% at Rs 1030 and Bharti Airtel has shed 0.3% at Rs 297.
The market breadth is positive. out of 2831 shares traded on the BSE, there are 1967 advancing stocks as aginst 772 declines.