Sensex up 100pts, IT, metals gain

The markets have managed to move out of the narrow range in the noon deals on back of buying visible in the IT, metal and auto stocks. The Sensex has gained 105 points at 16,572, and the Nifty was up 26 points at 4,967.

Meanwhile, the European markets have opened lower. CAC40 index was at 2,896, down 25 points, DAX shed 41 points to 5,125 and the FTSE was at 5,161, down 13 points

Back home, Infosys was the top gainer among the Sensex stocks, the stock advanced 3% to Rs 2,293. Wipro added 2.4% to Rs 336. J P Associates, Jindal Steel, TCS, Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto and Sun Pharma also added 1-1.7% each. On the other hand, Tata Power, L&T, Bharti Airtel, HDFC, Cipla, Hero MotoCorp and Maruti Suzuki were among the top losers.

Buying in IT heavyweights helped the BSE IT index to retain the top spot on the sectoral charts. The index advanced 2.4% or 114 points to 4,947. Renewed buying intrest was visble in the Metal stocks as the BSE metal index gained 0.6% or 71 points to 11,982. Auto, Oil & Gas, PSU and Healthcare indices were also trading in the gree.

At the same time, Capital Goods index was the top sectoral loser, down 1.2% to 11,987. Realty, Power, FMCG, Consumer Durables and Bankex idices were also among the losers, down 1-0.3% each in trades thus far.

Infosys, Wipro, HCL Technologies, MphasiS, TCS and Oracle Financial Services Software were the top gainers among the IT stocks. Among the metal stocks SAIL was the top gainer, up 2.2% to Rs 108. It was followed by JSW Steel, Jindal Steel, Hindustan Zinc, NMDC and Sterlite Industries.

Areva T&D, SKF India, L&T, Punj Lloyd, Suzlon Energy, Havells India and Lakshmi Machine Works were  the top losers among the capital goods stocks.

The broader markets were trading on a lacklustre note. The BSE mid-cap index was down 8 points at 6,310 and the small-cap index shed 2 points to 7,167.

The overall breadth was marginally positive as 1,302 stocks were advancing while 1,225 stocks were declining on the BSE.