Markets end higher, Sensex up 230 pts

The Sensex closed the day in the green by adding 230 points at 18,276 and the Nifty gained 63 points to close at 5,475

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(Updated at 1456 hrs)

The markets continue to trade firm into the last hour of trading with the Sensex gaining 222 points at 18,266 and the Nifty adding 66 points at 5,478. The broader markets too are on an uptrend with the midcap index continuing to outperform at 1.4% as compared to the Sensex gaining 1.1% and the smallcap index which added 0.8%.

Earlier the day, the markets had started off strong with the positive Asian cues and continued to trade higher through the day. There was renewed buying interest seen in realty and banking space from the start of the day helping the Sensex to touch an intra-day high of 18,298, up 193 points from the day's opening.

On the sectoral indices, Auto index continue to trade in the negative through the noon deals. Consumer Durables is another index which has slipped, down 0.8%. Amongst the auto stocks, Tata Motors was the top loser down 7%, while Hero Honda at Rs 1,856 and Maruti Suzuki at Rs 1,209 slipped 1% each.

Significant gainers on the Realty index were Anant Raj Industries at Rs 73 up by a tremendous 17%, Godrej Properties at Rs 679 up 5% and DLF at Rs 225 up 4%. Indiabulls Real Estate, Orbit Corp and Sobha Developers added 4% each. In the banking space, Yes Bank was the top gaienr at Rs 298, followed by ICICI Bank at rs 1,068 and Bank of Baroda at Rs 844, all up 4%.

Top gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Communications at Rs 86 up more than 6%, followed by Hindalco at Rs 197 up 5%, and Reliance Infra at Rs 560 up 4%. DLF and ICICI Bank advanced 4% each.

Tata Motors buckled under selling pressure, and the scrip shed 7% at Rs 1,085, even though the company reported a 14% y-o-y growth in its consolidated net profit at Rs 2,556 crore in Q4FY11. The automobile maker reported its lowest net profit growth in the last four quarters. Hindustan Unilever at Rs 303, Maruti Suzuki at Rs 1,202 and Hero Honda at Rs 1,855 slipped 1% each. NTPC, Cipla, Sterlite Industries and L&T were the other losers on the BSE benchmark.