Gains intact; Rel Infra, Jaiprakash lead

The Sensex continues to exhibit firm trend is now at 17,615, up 87 points. The NSE Nifty is at 5,274, up 25 points.

Among the Sensex-30 stocks, Reliance Infrastructure has gained 2.5% at Rs 1,025 and Jaiprakash Associates has added 2% each at Rs 152, respectively.

TCS, Wipro, Hero Honda and Larsen & Toubro have added over 1% each.

Hindustan Unilever is the major loser on the BSE, down 2% at Rs 233. The other major losers are Tata Power, Bharti Airtel and ONGC, down 0.5% each.

Among the sectoral indices, IT index has gained 1% at 5,301.

The BSE Midcap and the smallcap indices have performed better than the Sensex, up 0.5% and 1.5%, respectively.

Rico Auto is the major gainer on the smallcap index, up 17% and Gujarat Apol has zoomed 10% to Rs 223.

The market breadth is positive, out of 2,360 shares traded, 1,759 have advanced and 541 have declined so far on the BSE.