Sensex continues firm; Hero Honda up 3%

The Sensex continues to exhibit firmness and is now at 17,158, up 163 points. The NSE Nifty is at 5,137, up 49 points.

Among the Sensex-30 stocks, Hero Honda and Mahindra & Mahindra have soared 3% each to Rs 1,909 and Rs 1,105, respectively.

ICICI Bank, Jaiprakash Associates, ITC and Sun Pharma have advanced around 25 each to Rs 921, Rs 149, Rs 249 and Rs 1,636, respectively.

Wipro, Larsen & Toubro, Sterlite have 1.5% each on the BSE.

Hindustan Unilever and SBI on the other hand have declined 0.5% each to Rs 241 and Rs 2,038, respectively.

The market breadth is positive, out of 2,716 shares traded, 1,968 have advanced and 680 have declined so far on the BSE.

The Midcap index has added 1% at 6,813. Future Capital has zoomed 16%, followed by Andrew Yule and Ackruti City.

The small cap index is up 1.5% at 8,626.

Among the sectoral indices, auto and realty indices have added over 1% each on the BSE.Exide and Bharat Forge have advanced 3% on the realty index.