Sensex firm; Sterlite soars 12%

The Sensex is now up 279 points at 8,954.

The Reserve Bank of India in its quarterly review of the Credit Policy today left all key rates - repo, reverse repo and Cash Reserve Ratio - unchanged.

Sterlite has zoomed over 12% to Rs 269, and Reliance Infrastructure has soared over 9% to Rs 530.

Reliance has surged over 6% to Rs 1,224, and Wipro has gained 5.6% at Rs 226.

Sun Pharma, Grasim and Tata Steel have rallied over 5% each to Rs 1,132, Rs 1,195 and Rs 175, respectively.

BHEL and Bharti Airtel have moved up nearly 5% each to Rs 1,385 and Rs 645, respectively. Maruti has added 4.5% to Rs 539.

NTPC, TCS, Tata Motors, Tata Power and Infosys are up around 4% each.
 
ONGC has shed nearly 4% to Rs 621. Larsen & Toubro is down 1% at Rs 634.

The market breadth is marginally negative - out of 2,339 stocks traded so far, 1,151 have declined, 1,085 have advanced.