Broader markets gain

After a quiet opening, the Sensex moved north to touch a high of 18,823 in the morning trades, but pared gains soon after. Thereafter the markets gained momentum owing to the gains in the Realty and Consumer Durables space. The BSE benchmark index is up 40 points at 18,784 and the Nifty added 11 points at 5,643.

In the broader markets there was some movement with the small cap index gaining nearly 0.5% and the midcap index adding 0.4% outperforming as compared to the Sensex up 0.2%. Of the total 542 scrips listed under smallcap, 333 stocks advanced while 161 declined. The movers in this space are Ashapura Minechem, MidValley Entertainment, infinite Computer Solutions and Hindustan Media gaining 7-10%

Among the sectoral indices, rate sensitive Bankex slipped into the negative, down 0.2%. All the other indices continue to trade in the positive territory. Among these, Realty and Consumer Durables index gaining 0.9% each are the top gainers followed by Metal, Capital Goods and Teck.

Bharti Airtel, DLF, HDFC and Tata Steel up 1% each are the top gainers among the Sensex stocks. L&T, Jindal Steel, Hindalco, Reliance Infrastructure and Tata Motors adding in the range of 0.5-0.8% are the other notable gainers.

The top losers are Tata Power down 1%, Sterlite Industries, Hero Honda, Mahindra & Mahindra and ICICI Bank losing between 0.5-0.8%

The market breadth is positive. Of the total 2292 stocks traded on the BSE, 1379 stocks have advanced while 820 declined.