Markets off day's high

The Sensex is at 16,175, higher by 111 points and the Nifty is at 4795, up 30 points.

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(Updated at 1210 hrs)

The markets have held on to their gains in the past hour. The Sensex is quoting at 16,249, higher by  185 and the Nifty is at 4820, up 55 points.
 
The US markets strengthened overnight on the back of positive economic data. The Dow Jones closed above the 10k mark for the first time since October 22. And the Asian markets are trading in the positive this morning.

PSU, realty and consumer durables are doing well.

The leading Sensex gainers are Jaiprakash Associates (higher by 4% at Rs 227), DLF (up 3% at Rs 383), State Bank of India (up 3% at Rs 2,204 and Tata Steel (stronger nearly 3% at Rs 499). Sterlite, Reliance Infrastructure and HDFC have appreciated between 2% and 3% each.

Among the laggards, Hindustan Unilever has shed 1% at Rs 275, Tata Power has weakened nearly 1% at Rs 1,310 and BHEL has given up nearly 1% at Rs 2,205.

Out of 2515 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 1931 advancing stocks as against 528 declines.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Larsen and Toubro topped the value charts with a turnover of Rs 680.36 crore, followed by Suzlon (Rs 91.24 crore), State Bank of India (Rs 90.48 crore), HDIL (Rs 73.62 crore) and Tata Steel (63.79 crore).

Suzlon leads the volume charts, with trades of around 13.90 million shares, followed by IFCI (9.37 million shares),  Indiabulls Power (9.32 million), Reliance Natural Resources (6.32 million) and Unitech (5.72 million)..