The markets have surged in the late morning trades with the Sensex gaining 184 points at 18,911 and the Nifty gained 55 points at 5,681.
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(Updated at 1035 hrs)
After opening in the green, the Sensex touched a low of 18,767 only to recover and touch a high of 18,864 in the morning trades. However, the momentum fizzled out and the Sensex started moving sideways from thereon. Currently the BSE benchmark index is up 107 points at 18,834 and the Nifty added 30 points at 5,655.
However, in the broader markets, the smallcap advanced nearly 0.8% and the midcap index gained 0.6% as comapred to the Sensex underperforming with a 0.5% gain.
Consumer Durables and FMCG indices up 1% each continue to lead the gains folllowed by Metal and Health Care gaining 0.8% each. On the other hand, Bankex has turned flat after starting in the negative.
Jindal Steel and Bharti Airtel up 2% each are the top gainers among the Sensex stocks followed by Hindustan Unilever, NTPC, HDFC, Reliance Infrastructure, Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Steel gaining 1% each.
Meanwhile, the top losers are Sterlite down 1%, ICICI Bank down 0.7% and Bajaj Auto shed 0.2%.
The other buzzing stocks are SKS Microfinance which is trading higher by more than 16% at Rs 399, bouncing back 27% from intra-day lows of Rs 314, on reports that the Union ministry of finance has readied the Micro Finance Institutions (Development and Regulation) Bill, 2011, to be placed before Parliament for approval.
HDFC Bank is another stock which is trading higher by 1% at Rs 2,557 after the company fixed July 16 as the record date for stock split. “The board of directors has fixed July 16, 2011, as the record date for the purpose of ascertaining the eligible shareholders who would be entitled to receive 5 equity shares of nominal value of Rs 2 each in lieu of 1 equity share of nominal value of Rs 10 each of the bank on sub-division,” the second largest private sector bank said in a filing to the stock exchanges.
The market breadth remains positive. Of the total 2267 stocks traded on the BSE, 1465 stocks advanced while 700 declined.