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Market edged higher in late morning trades and the Sensex regained 21,000 mark after ITC and private banking majors rebounded from day's lows and were trading marginally higher.
At 12:00 pm, the 30-share BSE Sensex was trading at 21,096.98 up 201 points while the broader 50-share Nifty index was up 62 points at 6,276.
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(Updated at 11:30 am)
Markets edged higher in early noon trades as buying in IT heavyweights, Tata Steel and ITC aided the upmove. At 1130 hrs, the Sensex was up 99 points at 20,993 and the Nifty gained 29 points to trade at 6,244.
In the broader markets, the midcap index was up 0.6% and the smallcap index added 0.4% in line with the BSE benchmark index.
The rupee hit session low of 62.56, its lowest since October 2, on sluggish domestic equities and demand from private oil companies, traders said. The pair last traded at 62.54/55, up from Wednesday's close of 62.39/40.
Stocks in Asia except for Straits Times continue to remain subdued as investors turned cautious ahead of the ECB meeting and US GDP data to be released later in the day. The Straits Times was up 0.1%. The Nikkei, Shanghai Composite and Hang Seng was down 0.6% each.
Back home, on the sectoral front, Metal, IT, Realty and Teck indices were the major gainers, up 1-2%.
Health Care, FMCG, Auto and Capital Goods were in the green, adding 0.1-0.6%.
Consumer Durables, Oil & Gas, PSU, Bankex and Power indices were in the red, losing 0.1-1%.
The top gainers among the Sensex-30 were metal names like Tata Steel, Hindalco and Sesa Sterlite which gained 2.7-3.4%.
Infosys, Mahindra & Mahindra, L&T, TCS, HDFC, HUL and Sun Pharma edged higher by 1.5-2% were the other notable gainers.
BHEL, Bharti Airtel, Coal India and SBI down 0.2-3.5% were the only losers among the Sensex-30.
The market breadth was positive. 1,115 stocks advanced while 841 stocks declined on the BSE.
