Sensex quiet; broader markets outperform

The markets continue to exhibit sideways movement. The Sensex is now up 82 points at 16,863.
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(Updated at 1215 hrs)

There is not much of activity happening as far as the benchmark indices are concerned. The Sensex is quoting at 16860, higher by 78 points or 0.4% and the Nifty is at 5061, up 27 points. But there is outperformance in the broader market space; the midcap and smallcap sectors are up more than a per cent each at 6863 and 8606 respectively and the market breadth is strong.

The leading gainers on the Sensex are HDFC (strengthened by 2.3% at Rs 2740), Tata Power (higher by 2.2% at Rs 1251) and Tata Motors (gained 1.6% at Rs 751). Jindal Steel, SBI and Hindustan Unilever are the other significant gainers.

Telecom stocks are seeing selling pressure after the gains of the recent past. Bharti Airtel has weakened by 1% at Rs 165. RCom has shed 0.9% at Rs 174 and ONGC has lost 0.9% at Rs 1170. And index heavyweight RIL is poorer by 0.4% at Rs 1005.

In the mid-cap space, Mahindra and Mahindra Financial Services has soared by 9% at Rs 471, Edelweiss has appreciated by 5.6% at Rs 435 and Godrej Conmsumer has gained 5.6% at Rs 367. And in the smallcap space, Eveready has soared by 9.3% at Rs 59, Tata Metalliks has gained by 9% at Rs Rs 130 and Abbott India has added 6.6% at Rs 1153.

And out of 2635 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 1753 advancing stocks as against 775 declines.