Markets pare gains, Sensex up 109pts

The markets pared gains, but continued to trade firmly in the green post noon. The Sensex was at 18,320 up 109 points, while the Nifty moved up 29 points to 5,491 up 32 points.

Gainers on the Sensex were led by ICICI Bank at Rs 1,070 up 4%, Mahindra & Mahindra at Rs 713 and Tata Motors at Rs 1,169 both up 3%. BHEL, DLF, Hindustan Unilever, Bajaj AUto and HDFC Bank moved up 2% each.

Bharti Airtel was the top loser on the Sensex down more than 3% at Rs 346 after the country's largest cellular operator reported a 31.5% y-o-y drop in its Q4FY11 eranings at Rs 1,400 crore. Reliance Infra shed narly 3% at rs 600, while Sterlite Industries was trading down 2% at Rs 167. Reliance Communications and ITC were off 1% each.

The broader markets were steady, with the Mid-cap index at 6,829 up 0.4%, while the Small-cap index added 0.5% at 8,335.

On the sectoral front, the Bankex advanced more than 2% at 12,487, followed by the Auto index at 9,103 up 2% and the Capital Goods index at 12,673 up 1%.

On the banking counter, ICICI Bank added 4% at Rs 1,069, followed by IndusInd Bank at Rs 244 up 3.5% and Bank of India at Rs 415 up 3%. Axis Bank, Punjab National Bank, IDBI BAnk and Yes Bank added 2% each.

The FMCG index slipped in trade, and was quoting 0.6% lower at 3,594.

Nestle India at Rs 3,970 down 4% was the top loser on the FMCG index, while Marico at Rs 128 shed 2%, ITC let off 1% at Rs 180 and Colgate Palmolive shed 0.7% at Rs 886.

With 1,484 advances and 1,050 declines, the market breadth remained positive.