Sensex ends up 156pts

The Sensex has ended (provisional) at 17,620, up 156 points and the Nifty is 41 points higher at 5,274.
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(Updated at 1426hrs)

The Sensex is now near its day's high on the back of buying in the capital goods and oil&gas stocks. The European markets are also trading marginally higher, major indices like CAC, DAX and FTSE are up 0.5% each.

The BSE index is now at 17,584, up 121 points and Nifty is 32 points higher at 5,266.

Among the Sensex-30 stocks, Larsen & Toubro and Reliance Communications are up over 2.5% each at Rs 1,766 and Rs 191, respectively.

The other major gainers are Tata Motors, ONGC, Jaiprakash Associates and DLF, up 2% each.

Jindal Steel, Hindalco Industries, Reliance Industries, Tata Power and Maruti have added 1-2% each.

The market breadth is positive, out of 2,871 shares traded, 1,483 have advanced and 1,277 have declined on the BSE.

The BSE midcap and the smallcap indices are up 0.3% and 0.6%, respectively.

Among the sectoral indices, capital goods and oil&gas have added 1.5% each. It was followed by metal, auto and realty indices, up 0.5% each. Lakshmi Machine works has rallied 14% to Rs 2,047 on the BSE Capital goods index. Aban Offshore has soared 3.5% to Rs 732 on the BSE oil&gas index.