Markets at day's high

The positive news from the inflation arena and a decent opening for the European markets has cheered the Indian market to break its range bound movement. The Sensex has touched an intra-day high of 18,258 and is hovering around the same. On the European front, CAC is up 0.8% at 3,478, FTSE has gained 0.7% at 5,145 while DAX is down 0.6% at 5,899. The Sensex is up 73 points at 18253 and the Nifty is at 5482, gaining 20 points.

Among the sectoral indices on the BSE, Auto has moved up 1% and leads the chart closely followed by Bankex. FMCG index on the other hand has lost some of its gains and is at 0.9%. However, Oil & Gas has slipped into the red, down 0.07% accompanying IT which is flat at 0.01%. The major movers in the Auto index are Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland and Apollo Tyres up 2% each.In the bankex space, Indusind Bank adding 5% followed by Union Bank and Bank of India gaining 3% each are the major gainers.

The gainers list on the Sensex continues to remain stable with Tata Motors and DLF up 2% leading the way. ITC, SBI and Jindal Steel adding 1.4% each are the other significant gainers.

Paring some of its initial losses, Sterlite down 0.9% leads the losers list followed by  Cipla, Hindustan Unilever and RIL down 0.5% each.

Market breadth continues to be positive. 1572 stocks have advanced while 1205 have declined.