After opening in the positive the Sensex continued to move higher and touched an intra-day high of 18,577. Thereafter the index lost its steam and is currently trading at 18,508 up 96 points and the Nifty gained 32 points at 5,558.
The broader markets on the other hand advanced in the morning trades. The smallcap and the midcap indices are up 0.9% each outperforming the Sensex which is up 0.5%.
Among the sectoral indices, Realty and Consumer Durables are up 1% each closely followed by Metal, Health Care and Oil & Gas gaining 0.8% each. However IT index is down 0.2% continuing yesterday's bad run after Infosys results.
Realty major DLF up nearly 2% is the top gainer among the Sensex stocks followed by ONGC, TCS, Jaiprakash Associates, Reliance Infrastructure, Mahindra & Mahindra and State Bank of India gaining 1% each.
Among the losers are Cipla, Infosys down nearly 1% and Wipro losing 0.5%
The market breadth is positive. Of the total 2339 stocks traded, 1629 stocks have advanced while 623 declined.