Sensex firm in early trades

The Indian bourses have opened in the green tracking strong Asian cues. Sectoral indices like oil&gas and IT are also showing strength. The Sensex is now at 17,216, up 151 points and the NSE Nifty is at 5,157, up 38 points.

Among the Sensex-30 stocks, Reliance Industries and Sterlite have advanced 2% each to Rs 1,068 and Rs 646, respectively.

The other major gainers are Hindustan Unilever, Reliance Communications, Reliance Infrastructure, Infosys and ICICI Bank, up 1% each.

On the other hand Bharti Airtel has slipped 0.5% to Rs 272.

The market breadth is positive, out of 1,216 shares traded, 999 have advanced and 183 have declined so far on the BSE.