Sensex up 71pts; Southern Petro zooms 12%

The Sensex has touched a high of 10,154, and is now up 71 points at 10,150.

Hindalco and Ranbaxy have moved up 2.2% each to Rs 158 and Rs 448, respectively.

Tata Steel and Larsen & Toubro have surged nearly 2% each at Rs 403 and Rs 2,287, respectively.

Wipro has advanced 1.6% to Rs 520.

Dr.Reddy's (Rs 1,349), ITC (Rs 164), Reliance Energy (Rs 606), Hero Honda (Rs 895), BHEL (Rs 1,845) and Cipla (Rs 548) are up over 1% each.

HLL is the only notable loser among the Sensex stocks. The stock has shed Rs2 to Rs 237.

Sothern Petro has zoomed over 12% to Rs 27.30. Rane Brakes, Colour Chemicals, GTC Industries, Videocon Appliances, HCL Infosys, Britannia, Balaji Tele, Engineers India, Colgate, Jaiprakash, Pfizer, Exide, VisualSoft and Crompton Greaves are the other significant gainers.

Venkys India has plunged over 6% to Rs 136. Blue Star, Bajaj Auto Finance, Colour Chips, Merck, BPCL, Godrej Consumers and Nirma are in declining mode.