Steady gains in markets

After a flat opening this morning, the Sensex notched up 217 points at 18,308, with buying seen in realty, metal and telecom stocks.

The Nifty moved up 55 points at 5,487.

On the BSE, the broader indices under-performed the benchmark, with the Mid-cap index up 0.6% at 6,792, and the Small-cap at 8,404 up half a per cent.

Top gainers on the Sensex were DLF at Rs 234 up 3%, while Bharti Airtel at Rs 331, Hero Honda at Rs 1,557, Hindalco Industries at Rs 240, Tata Motors at Rs 1,129 and HUL at Rs 279 were up 2% each.

Losers on the BSE benchmark were led by Reliance Communications down 1% at Rs 116, Wipro at Rs 436, NTPC at Rs 180 and Tata Power at Rs 1,215 all down 0.3%.

Realty was the highest sectoral gainer at 2,232 up 2%, followed by Metal at 16,346 up 1.4% and Teck at 3,768 up 1%.

Realty stocks witnessing value buys included HDIL at Rs 136 and DLF at Rs 235 up 4% each, while Orbit Corp gained 3% at Rs 61, and Indiabulls Real Estate at Rs 120, DB Realty at Rs 156 and Ackruti City at Rs 216 were all up 2%.

Healthcare stocks were trading flat at 6,165 up barely 0.2%.

The market breadth was positive, with 1,296 avances versus 868 declines.