Markets see a steady upmove

It is turning out into a good afternoon session for the markets. The indices have broken out of the narrow range that they were stuck in all morning. Credit goes to Europe. Our domestic bourses seem to have just taken heed from the FTSE, DAX and CAC, which have added upto 1% in opening trades. The Sensex is currently quoting at 17095, higher by 87 points and the Nifty is at 5138, up 27 points. The midcap index is up 0.3% at 6898 and the smallcap index is up 0.3% at 8656.

The leading Sensex gainers are Hindustan Unilever (strengthened by 2.2% at Rs 252), SBI (gained 2.2% at Rs 2337) and DLF (added 2.1% at Rs 283). ITC, Maruti and ICICI Bank are the other notable gainers. And index heavyweight has recovered from its day's lows and is now quoting at Rs 1034, up 0.3%.

On the losers side, ONGC has weakened by 0.9% a Rs 1198, Sterlite has shed 0.9% at Rs 644 and Relianmce Communications has lost 0.7% at Rs 163.

The market breadth is marginally positive. Out of 2828 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 1427 advancing stocks as against 1273 declines.