Markets retain momentum

The markets continue their good run, with the Sensex touching a new intra-day high at 18,230, up  89 points and the Nifty adding 24 points at 5464.

However,the Asian markets have slipped into the red after a mixed opening. The Hang Seng is flat, while the Nikkei has lost 91 points or 0.9% at 9,550.

Among the BSE sectoral indices, Realty and Consumer Durables lead the charts, up 2.5% and 2% respectively. However Oil & Gas and IT (down 0.2%) are in the red. The movers in the realty space are Sobha Dev, Unitech and DLF (up 3% each), while Gitanjali Gems (up 6%) leads the Consumer Durables space, followed by Rajesh Exports and Videocon Industries (up 4% each).

DLF (up nearly 3% at Rs 316) leads the Sensex gainers charts, followed by ICICI Bank (up 1.8% at Rs 970) Airtel (up 2% at Rs 327),  and ACC (up 1.3% at Rs 835)

The losers on the Sensex are  Wipro (down 0.8% at Rs 430 ), followed by Infosys ( down 0.6%  at Rs 2846), Cipla (shedding 0.5% at Rs 319) and HDFC Bank (losing 0.4% at Rs 2086)

Of the 2810 stocks traded, 1970 stocks have advanced compared to a mere 758 declines.