Markets trade steady with +ve bias

Paring gains, the Sensex was up 81 points at 19,218, down almost 116 points from its intra-day high of 19,334.

The BSE IT index continued as the top performer owing to a strengthening dollar, which, in turn, will augment IT firms' earnings. The index was up 1% at 6,073. TCS was the top gainer up 2%, followed by Wipro and Infosys, both up 1%.

Realty stocks continued their negative run, with the BSE Realty index down 2% at 2,685. Top losers in the index are DB Realty down 10%, followed by Unitech down 4% and Anant Raj Industries down 3%. Parsvnath Developers, Orbit Corp, DLF and HDIL showed a slight improvement in their performance, but they continued to tread in negative territory.

The Mid Cap and Small Cap indices were both down 1% each. Shree Ashthavinayak, down 20%, led the top losers chart, followed by Money Matters Financial Services and Core Projects, both down 10% each.

In the Small Cap segment, Bheema Cements fell 12%, followed by Koutons Retail and Sujana Metal, both down 10%.

Overall, the markets looked positive, in line with the pre-market estimates.