Firm trades continue, Sensex up 170pts

Markets continued to trade firm in late morning trades, following a rally in IT shares as rupee dropped to two-year low. The BSE Sensex is at 16,913, up 167 points and the Nifty is at 5,082, up 50 points.

The Indian rupee fell amid weakness of the euro as worries over the European debt crisis deepened following Standard & Poor's downgrade of Italy's sovereign rating.

Earlier in the day, the bourses had witnessed a quiet opening and then moved higher, tracking recovery in the Asian indices taking Italy's credit rating in stride. The BSE benckmark index had touched a high of 16,659.
 
Among the sectoral indices, BSE IT is at 5,163, up 2%.TCS, Infosys, HCL Technologies, Oracle Financial Services Software and Wipro, up 2-3% each, are the major gainers from the IT space.

BSE Teck and Consumer Durables indices are also leading, having added nearly 2% each. T

C Mahendra Exports, Rajesh Exports, TTK Prestige, VIP Industries and Whirlpool of India, up 1-7% each, are the major gainers among the Consumer Durables stocks.

BSE Capital Goods index is the only in the negative, down 0.1%.

Among the Sensex 30 stocks, Tata Motors had moved up 3% at Rs 166. Other prominent gainers include TCS, Infosys, JP Associates and M&M, up 2-3% each. On the other hand of the spectrum are ONGC, BHEL, Maruti Suzuki, Coal India and Tata Power, the major losers among the pack.

The overall market breadth is positive as 1,505 stocks have advanced against 788 declining ones, on the BSE.