Sensex gains as RIL advances

After a negative start, the Sensex has moved into the positive territory on the back of gains seen in the Oil& Gas and Consumer Durables space. This lead the index to touch a high of 18,777 and continues to hover around the same level.

Currently, the Sensex is at 18,764, up 42 points and the Nifty is up 13 points at 5,647. Index heavyweight, Reliance Industries  contributed 24 points in the upmove.

In the broader markets, the midcap and the smallcap indices up 0.5% each outperform the BSE benchmark index which is marginally up by 0.1%

Among the sectoral indices, Oil & Gas continues to lead the gains followed by Auto, Capital Goods and Consumer Durables indices gaining 0.6% each. On the other hand, FMCG index is down over 1% and IT lost 0.5% in the morning trades.

Reliance Communications up 5% followed by Bharti Airtel, Sterlite Industries, Reliance Industries, Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors up 1% each are the top gainers among the Sensex stocks.

The losers are ITC down 1.5%, Infosys, Cipla, Bajaj Auto and HDFC down 0.6-0.7%

the market breadth continues to be positive. Of the total 2387 stocks traded on the BSE, 1462 stocks have advanced while 830 declined.