Minimal movements in the markets during the past hour saw the Sensex flat at 20, 606, and the Nifty at 6,166, both up 96 and 33 points respectively.
Major gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Infra at Rs 871, Tata Steel at Rs 701 and Sterlite Industries at Rs 193, all up 3%.
Losing scrips were Bajaj Auto at Rs 1,490 down 3%, and Hero Honda at Rs 1,969 and NTPC at Rs 199, both down by a percent each.
Metal stocks were performing robustly, with the index up 2% at 17,952.
Leading stocks in this space were Sterlite Industries and Tata Steel, both up 3%, followed by Jindal Saw at Rs 188, also up 3%.
The Realty and Consumer Durables indices were the other indices topping the sectoral chart at 2,886 and 6,422 respectively.
The IT index was a laggard in trade, trading flat, with a negative bias, at 6,820.
Losers on this index were Patni Computer at Rs 469 down 2%, Wipro at Rs 488 down 1% and TCS at Rs 1,162 down less than a percent.
The market breadth was positive, with 2,112 advances versus 750 declines.