Sensex off day's high, still up over 200pts

The Sensex touched a high of 9,699, and is now up 219 points at 9,6493.  Banking and realty stocks continue to lead the upmove.

The BSE Bankex has soared 6% to 4,582, and the Realty index has surged 4.5% to 1,649.

HDFC Bank has zoomed over 9% to Rs 968, and ICICI Bank has soared over 6% to Rs 368. DLF has surged 5.5% to Rs 177.

Mahindra & Mahindra and SBI have rallied over 5% each to Rs 388 and Rs 1,075, respectively.

HDFC has moved up nearly 4% to Rs 1,587. Wipro and Grasim have gained 3.5% each at Rs 248 and Rs 1,576, respectively.

BHEL and Bharti Airtel have advanced over 3% each to Rs 1,459 and Rs 612, respectively.

ACC, however, has slipped 1% to Rs 552.

The market breadth is fairly positive - out of 2,377 stocks traded so far, 1,460 have advanced, 825 have declined and the rest are unchanged.