Sensex ends up 357pts

The Sensex has finally ended (provisional) at 16,379, up 357 points. The NSE Nifty has ended (provsional) at 4,913, up 106 points.
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(Updated at 1450hrs)

The markets have advanced further and is near its day's high. The Sensex is now at 16,347, up 324 points and the NSE Nifty is 93 points higher at 4,900.
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(Updated at 1357hrs)

The markets have extended gains following a strong opening of the European markets. Main indices like FTSE, DAX and CAC 40 have advanced over 2% each. The Sensex is now at 16,272, up 249 points and the NSE Nifty is 73 points higher at 4,880.

Among the Sensex-30 stocks, Hindalco Industries, Jaiprakash Associates, TCS and Sterlite Industries have gained over 3% each at Rs 143, Rs 120, Rs 722 and Rs 627, respectively.

The other prominent gainers on the Sensex are DLF, Mahindra & Mahindra, ICICI Bank, Tata Motors, HDFC Bank, Infosys and Wipro, up 2-3% each.

While ACC, Maruti, BHEL and HUL have slipped 0.5% each on the BSE.

The market breadth is positive, out of 2,786 shares traded, 1,759 have advanced and 933 have declined so far on the BSE.

The BSE midcap and the smallcap indices are up 1% each.

Among the sectoral indices, realty, metal and IT indices are up 2.5% each.Unitech and Peninsula Land have added 3.5% each on the BSE realty index.

Vinyl Chemicals and Cals Refineries have advanced 20% on the midcap index. Ajmera Realty is the major gainer on the smallcap index, up 12.5%.