Sensex steady; breadth fairly -ve

The Sensex is now up 54 points at 8,834. The index had opened with a positive gap of 126 points, and soon touched a high of 8,928 in early trades. Thereafter, the index pared gains and touched a low of 8,790.

Bharti Airtel has surged 5.7% to Rs 617. Grasim, ACC and Jaiprakash Associates have rallied around 2.5% each to Rs 1,172, Rs 490 and Rs 68, respectively.

TCS has moved up nearly 2% to Rs 500. ICICI Bank and Sterlite have gained 1.5% each at Rs 375 and Rs 241, respectively.

Ranbaxy and Hindalco have slumped over 5% each to Rs 193 and Rs 45, respectively.

Tata Motors has tumbled 3.6% to Rs 135. Reliance Infrastructure and DLF have dropped around 3% each to Rs 504 and Rs 176, respectively.

Wipro and Mahindra & Mahindra have slipped around 2.5% each to Rs 214 and Rs 289, respectively.

Tata Steel and Larsen & Toubro have declined around 1.5% each to Rs 186 and Rs 677, respectively. SBI is down over 1% at Rs 1,070.

The market breadth is fairly negative - out of 2,203 stocks traded so far, 1,358 have declined, 756 have advanced and the rest are unchanged.