Sensex firm in early trades

The markets are now firm owing to buying in capital goods and energy stocks. The Sensex is now at 17,694, up 77 points and Nifty is at 5,294, up 20 points.

Among the Sensex-30 stocks, Reliance Communications, Jindal Steel and Larsen & Toubro have added 2% each at Rs 195, Rs 678 and Rs 1,805, respectively on the BSE.

The other prominent gainers are Hero Honda, Reliance Industries, Mahindra& Mahindra and Tata Power, up 1% each.

On the other hand Sterlite Industries and ICICI Bank are down 1% each at Rs 686 and Rs 873, respectively.

The market breadth is positive, out of 2,336 shares traded, 1,383 have advanced and 872 have declined so far on the BSE.

The BSE midcap and the smallcap indices are up 0.5% each.

Among the sectoral indices, capital goods and oil&gas indices have added 1% each on the BSE.

Reliance Industrial Infrastructure zoomed 6% to Rs 1,067 and Lakshmi Machines soared 3% to Rs 2,063, respectively on the capital goods.

Aban Offshore and RNRL advanced 2% each to Rs 745 and Rs 69, respectively on the Oil&gas index.