Sensex steady; Tata Steel surges 5%

The Sensex is now up 155 points at 9,620. Earlier in the day the index opened 75 points higher on the back of positive global cues and firmed up to a high of 9,655 on hopes of some positive annoucement from today's interim Railway Budget.

Tata Steel has surged 4.6% to Rs 194. Mahindra & Mahindra and BHEL have rallied 4.3% each to Rs 313 and Rs 1,472, respectively.

Reliance Infrastructure and ACC have moved up nearly 4% each to Rs 571 and Rs 571, respectively.

Larsen & Toubro and Jaiprakash Associates have gained 3.3% each at Rs 705 and Rs 75, respectively. Grasim has added 3% to Rs 1,390.

Reliance, Maruti and SBI are up 2.7% each at Rs 1,388, Rs 630 and Rs 1,190, respectively.

ICICI Bank and Reliance Communications are up 2.5% each at Rs 432 and Rs 177, respectively.

Sun Pharma, however, has slipped over 1% to Rs 1,093.

The market breadth is significantly positive - out of 2,191 stocks traded so far, 1,424 have advanced, 671 have declined and 96 are unchanged.