Markets have given up some of its opening gains as weakness in FMCG counter along with few banks weighed on the gains in IT and Reliance Industries.
At 1025 hrs, the Sensex was up 32 points at 19,746 and the Nifty continues to hover a little above the 6,000 mark at 6,004.
Meanwhile, the broader markets saw some activity with the midcap and the smallcap indices up 0.6-0.7%, both continuing to outperform the Sensex which was up nearly 0.2%.
Among the sectoral indices, Capital Goods slipped into red along with Bankex, Consumer Durables and FMCG indices. In the meantime, IT counter strengthened with over 1% gain as Infosys and TCS gained 1% each.
In other stocks, shares of gold finance companies mainly Manappuram Finance and Muthoot Finance have rallied more than 8% each on BSE on hopes of upward revision cap on gold loan-to-value (LTV) ratio.
Manappuram Finance rallied 18% to Rs 39.85 on back of over eight-fold jump in trading volumes. A combined 8.9 million shares have already changed hands on the counter in morning deals against an average around 1.4 million shares that were traded daily in past two weeks.
Muthoot Finance surged almost 10% at Rs 229 and has seen a combined 1.14 million shares changing hands on the counter so far on the BSE and NSE.
NMDC was trading lower by around 2% at Rs 165 on the National Stock Exchange on reports that state-run miner reduced the price of iron ore lumps by 5.9% or Rs 320 a tonne for the current month mainly to align rates with the landed cost of the imported raw material.
Jet Airways (India) surged over 5.6% at Rs 612 on reports that Abu Dhabi-based Etihad is close to buying 24% stake in Naresh Goyal-owned private airline company.
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Markets started off the day on a firm note on the back of strong global cues. The Sensex was up 45 points at 19,759 and the Nifty gained 14 points to start at 6,007.
In international markets, Wall Street started 2013 with their best day in more than a year as relief over a last-minute deal in Washington to avert the "fiscal cliff" sparked a broad rally with technology and banking shares leading the move higher.
The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 2.35%, to 13,412 at the close. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 2.54%, to finish at 1,462. The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 3.07%, to end at 3,112.
Many Asian stocks opened with mild gains following the previous session's rally as investors look ahead to negotiations on the US debt limit and spending cuts.Hang Seng was flat with a positive bias while Taiwan Weighted, Straits Times, KLSE Composite and Jakarta Composite added 0.5-1%.
Meanwhile, China's official purchasing managers' index (PMI) for the non-manufacturing sector rose to a four-month high of 56.1 in December from 55.6 in November, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Thursday, adding to signs of a revival in the world's second-largest economy.
The services sector index follows twin manufacturing PMI surveys that showed China's growth reviving in December, although signs persist that such growth still depends primarily on state-led investment.
Back home, the broader markets opened on a strong note with midcap and the smallcap indices adding 0.3-0.4%, outperforming the BSE benchmark index.
Among the sectoral indices, FMCG, Consumer Durables and Bankex indices were the only ones to start in the negative, down 0.1-0.3%. On the other hand the ones leading the gains were Capital Goods, Health Care, Realty, Metal and Auto indices, up 0.2-0.5%.
The gainers among the Sensex pack in the opening deals were ONGC, Tata Steel, Wipro, Bajaj Auto, Gail India, Dr Reddys Lab, Coal India, Hero MotoCorp, TCS and Jindal Steel which gained 0.5-1%.
Among the ones to start in the red were ITC, Maruti Suzuki, HDFC, Cipla and ICICI Bank down 0.1-0.5%.
The market breadth was positive. 933 stocks advanced while 368 stocks declined on the BSE.
