At 10.40 am, the Sensex is up 33.51 points at 6556.05, and the Nifty is up 6.10 points at 2065.90. The market breadth is positive, about 1271 shares have advanced, 494 shares declined, and 39 shares are unchanged.

• Action in Bank, cement and tech shares
• Media, pharma, and auto shares gain
• Telecom shares firm; metal & FMCG mixed

Analysts say that the markets are expected to be stable to positive. The FII inflows remain positive in the market. They were net buyers to the tune of Rs 174.10 crore (Rs 1.74 billion) on Wednesday.

The BSE Consumer Durable Index has outperformed the other indices. It is up 1.14% to 1,517.46 amid buying interest in Samtel Colour, BPL, Titan Industries, Mirc Electronics, and Videocon International.

Several pharma stocks including Cipla, Dr Reddy's and Ranbaxy are also trading higher. Most of the cement stocks have also gained on expectation of an increase in offtake due to reconstruction after the Tsunami destruction.

Bharti Televentures, Tata Teleservices, and MTNL are trading firm in the telecom space. Auto shares including Ashok Leyland, Bajaj Auto, Hero Honda and Tata Motors are firm as crude oil prices eased. Refinery stocks have also gained.

The Bankex is up 1.04% to 3,674.67 on gains in several large and midcap banks including UCO Bank, Andhra Bank, IOB, Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank, Union Bank, Oriental Bank. SBI and ICICI Bank are also trading higher. The Finance Minister said that higher cap for FDI in banking is likely in the next few days.

Among the technology shares, most of the frontline technology as well as second run technology share are trading higher. Gains are seen in HCL Technologies, Infosys, Satyam, Infotech Enterprises, Mphasis BFL, Polaris, and Rolta.

Media stocks are also in limelight with Balaji Telefilms, Mid Day Multimedia, Mukta, Arts, TV18 and Zee Telefilms have all gained. Most of the metal and FMCG shares are trading mixed.