Sensex ends 71pts higher

The Sensex has ended (provisional) at 17,625, up 71 points.

The NSE Nifty ended (provisioanl) at at 5,275, up 23 points.
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(Updated at 1452hrs)

Markets have come off the day's high in late-noon trades. The Sensex has dropped 104 points from the day's high of 17,713. The index is now up 54 points at 17,608.

The Nifty is up 15 points at 5,267.

The BSE realty index has dropped 1% to 4,043. The oil & gas and metal indices have also declined.

Unitech has slipped 1.7% to Rs 87. Jaiprakash Associates and Grasim have also dropped 1.6% each to Rs 161 and Rs 2,799, respectively.

Tata Steel, SAIL and Tata Power have also declined around 1% each.

On the other hand, HDFC Bank has gained 4.6% at Rs 1,773. Hero Honda has jumped 4% to Rs 1,688. Mahindra & Mahindra has added 2% to Rs 1,183.

ICICI Bank has advanced 2% to Rs 859. TCS has moved up 1.4% to Rs 803 after reporting a better-than-expected Q3 numbers.

The other stock which have moved up are HDFC, Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki and Bharti Airtel.