Following two consecutive days of gains of 367 points, the markets treaded on a robust trajectory today as well, with the Sensex up 138 points at 18,345, and the Nifty ahead by 36 points at 5,517, despite an increase in food inflation to 10.05%, up from 9.42% reported a week earlier.
The Sensex, which opened with a positive gap of 80 points at 18,286, touched an intra-day high of 18,374 a little after opening, and has been trading firm ever since.
Gainers on the index were heavy engineering firm BHEL at Rs 2,047 and Hindalco Industries at Rs 202 both up 3%, followed by TCS at Rs 1,088 up 2%. Mahindra & Mahindra and IT bellweather Wipro were also up 2% at Rs 657 and Rs 443 respectively.
The broader markets moved in line with the benchmark, and the BSE Mid-cap index was up 0.7% at 6,646, while the Small-cap was up nearly 1% at 7,938.
Auto major Maruti Suzuki was the highest loser on the Sensex at Rs 1,165 down 1%, while Reliance Infra at Rs 633 and Baja Auto at Rs 1,354 were both down 0.4%.
Realty stocks were the favoured lot today as well, and the index advanced 3% to 2,172. Significant gainers in this space were Unitech at Rs 40 up 7%, Parsvnath Developers at Rs 40 up 6% and Indiabulls Real Estate at Rs 119 and Orbit Corp at Rs 52 both up 5%.
The Capital Goods index followed the realty index on the sectoral chart up nearly 2% at 12,769. Top gainers on the index were Alstom Projects at Rs 545 and BHEL at Rs 2,046 both up 3%, followed by ABB at Rs 768 and BEML at Rs 695 both up 2%.
Energy stocks were the laggards in trade, and the Oil & Gas index was flat, albeit with a negative bias, at 9,870. Gail India was the major loser amongst the oil & gas stocks down 1% at Rs 460, while Cairn India at Rs 352 abd HPCL at Rs 333 were off 0.3% each.
With 1,027 declining stocks versus 1,627 advancing stocks, the market breadth remained fairly positive.
