Nifty above 4400; financials, infrastructure, metals up

At 14:10 hours IST, the markets gained some more strength on the back of buying in banking (barring HDFC Bank), power, capital goods, select metal stocks along with Bharti Airtel. The Nifty tested the 4400 mark.

However, the benchmark indices were still volatile in trade. Infosys, DLF, Reliance Communication, ITC, Hero Honda, HDFC Bank, HUL, Sterlite, Idea, Hindalco, Unitech and Nalco were seeing selling pressure. Reliance Industries and ONGC were volatile.

The Sensex rose 127 points, to 14,785 and the Nifty gained 37 points, at 4,386. On the global front European markets were flat in trade.

The market breadth was marginally negative; aout 1247 shares advanced while 1479 shares declined on the BSE. Nearly 430 shares were unchanged.

Top gainers - HDFC was at Rs 2,516, up 4.81%; M&M was at Rs 735.10, up 3.18%; Tata Steel was at Rs 433.25, up 3.12%; SBI was at Rs 1,797.20, up 2.18%; ICICI Bank was at Rs 747, up 2.09%; Ranbaxy Labs was at Rs 252.60, up 4.36% and Cipla was at Rs 257.35, up 3.73%.

Positive contributors to the bourses by weightage were L&T, ICICI Bank, HDFC, Bharti Airtel, SBI and NTPC.

On the next page - see how Indian markets performed in the last couple of hours