At 1.22 pm, the Sensex was trading up 23.02 points or 0.13% at 18,362.02 with 13 components gaining. Meanwhile, the Nifty was trading higher by 9 points or 0.16% at 5,580.40 with 17 components gaining.

The 30-share benchmark index, BSE Sensex opened with a gain of 83.69 points or 0.46% at 18,422.69, while the broad based NSE Nifty started with a rise of 33.40 points or 0.60%, at 5,604.80.

Sensex Movers

Housing Development Finance Corporation contributed rise of 37.96 points in the Sensex. It was followed by Mahindra & Mahindra (10.55 points), Tata Consultancy Services (9.55 points), H D F C Bank (8.08 points) and Hindustan Unilever (6.62 points).

However, Infosys contributed fall of 18.33 points in the Sensex. It was followed by I T C (10.13 points), State Bank Of India (5.73 points), Reliance Industries (5.57 points) and Larsen & Toubro (4.49 points).

Biggest gainers in the 30-share index were Housing Development Finance Corporation (2.70%), Mahindra & Mahindra (2.17%), Wipro (1.51%), Tata Power Company (1.40%), Tata Consultancy Services (1.07%), and Hindustan Unilever (1.00%).

On the other hand, Infosys (1.36%), Hindalco Industries (1.02%), Hero Motocorp (0.99%), Bajaj Auto (0.98%), State Bank Of India (0.86%), and Sterlite Industries (India) (0.72%) were the biggest losers in the Sensex.

Mid & Small-cap Space

The BSE Mid and small caps underperformed their larger counterparts declining -0.25% and -0.21% respectively.

The major losers in the BSE Midcap were Allahabad Bank(1.01%), A B G Shipyard (0.65%), Aban Offshore (0.62%), CORE Education and Technologies (0.49%) and Amara Raja Batteries (0.48%).

The major losers in the BSE Smallcap were Adhunik Metaliks (3.1%), Action Construction Equipment (2.81%), Aarti Industries (0.94%), Reliance MediaWorks (0.28%) and A2Z Maintenance & Engineering Services (0.17%).

Sectors in Limelight

The Realty index was at 1,869.13, down by 20.44 points or by 1.08%. The major losers were D B Realty (4.17%), Anant Raj Industries (2.88%), Indiabulls Real Estate (2.86%), Housing Development and Infrastructure (1.39%) and D L F (0.54%).

The Metal index was at 9,753.00, down by 40.26 points or by 0.41%. The major losers were JSW Steel (1.31%), Sesa Goa (1.14%), Hindalco Industries (1.11%), NMDC (0.74%) and Jindal Steel & Power (0.61%).

The HC index was at 7,606.78, down by 21.68 points or by 0.28%. The major losers were Divis Laboratories (0.83%), Biocon (0.71%), Cadila Healthcare (0.65%), Cipla (0.52%) and Aurobindo Pharma (0.2%).

On the other hand, the Auto index was at 10,537.62, up by 29.60 points or by 0.28%. The major gainers were Mahindra & Mahindra (2.11%), Maruti Suzuki India (0.49%), Tata Motors (0.4%) and Bosch (0.28%).

Market Breadth

Market breadth was negative with 1,145 advances against 1,526 declines.

Value and Volume Toppers

United Spirits topped the value chart on the BSE with a turnover of Rs. 622.81 million. It was followed by L&T Finance Holdings (Rs. 485.65 million), State Bank Of India (Rs. 417.75 million) and Zylog Systems (Rs. 409.94 million).

The volume chart was led by L&T Finance Holdings with trades of over 6.68 million shares. It was followed by Zylog Systems (5.79 million), Kingfisher Airlines (3.83 million) and Spicejet (3.22 million).