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At 11:35AM, the Sensex was up 31 points at 19,666 and the Nifty was up 14 points at 5,953.
In Asia, stocks rose to their highest since August 2011 on Wednesday after an improving global economic outlook boosted world equities overnight, encouraging investors to take on risk. The Nikkei was up 0.7%, the Hang Seng and Straits Times were nearly up 0.2% each while the Shanghai Composite was trading flat with negative bias.
Realty index was the top gainer among sectoral indices on the BSE followed by oil & gas and IT indices. On the losing side Consumer Durables, FMCG and Metal indices were the top losers.
Reliance Industries continues to lead gains on the Sensex. The stock was up nearly 2% at Rs 865 as the company and its partner BP Plc plans to jointly invest more than $5 billion over the next three to five years to boost output at a key natural gas field off India's east coast. ONGC extended gains and was up 0.3%.
In the financial space, HDFC, SBI and HDFC Bank were among the gainers. Software majors such as TCS and Wipro were up 0.4-0.9% each while Infosys was marginally down on profit taking after the stock gained ahead of its listing on NYSE Euronext’s (NYX) London and Paris markets later today.
ICICI Bank and FMCG majors Hindustan Unilever and ITC were among the top losers in the Sensex.
The BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices are trading marginally positive, both gaining between 0.2-0.6%.
Among other shares, Welspun Corp was down nearly 3% after the National Stock Exchange said it will exclude the stock from futures & options trading on the bourses.
The National Stock Exchange said it will exclude leading pipe manufacturer Welspun Corp from its derivative segment. In a circular, the exchange said trading in derivative contracts for the security would not be available with effect from April 26, 2013.
Power generator, Lanco Infratech gained over 2% at Rs 12.10 on news that the company has reached out to its Malaysian partner, Genting, to buy stake in three of its power plants.
Shares of newly listed V-Mart Retail slipped in the morning trades after debuting at a premium of 2.86% to the initial public offer price of Rs 210, on the BSE.
The market breadth on BSE remains positive with 1,352 shares advancing and 961 shares declining.
