Nifty choppy with positive bias; RIL, SBI, ICICI Bank lead

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At 12:19 hours IST, the Sensex has gained strength again but it was still witnessing some volatility. Banking, power, cement and select metal stocks were seeing buying interest. Heavyweight Reliance Industries rose 2.5%, as the company announced its first oil discovery in its exploration block in the Cambay Basin off Gujarat, wherein it holds 100% participating interest.

However, selling continued in Bharti Airtel, BHEL, Hero Honda, Maruti, Infosys, HUL, Jaiprakash Associates, Sun Pharma, Hindalco and ONGC, which capped the gains.

The Sensex rose 81 points to 16,579 and the Nifty went up 26 points at 4,924. The broader indices were outperforming the benchmark indices by small margin, up 0.9% each.

In the largecaps, Tata Motors, M&M, ACC, Reliance Industries, Reliance Infrastructure, Ambuja Cements, SBI and ICICI Bank were up 1.8-3.6%.

The market breadth was positive; about 1,818 shares advanced while 1,134 shares declined. Nearly 814 shares were unchanged.

In the midcap space, Jai Corp surged 12.53% and Hindustan Oil Exploration gained 10%. Engineers India, HMT and Gujarat Gas were up 6-9.5%. However, AstraZeneca, Thomas Cook, Sun Pharma Advanced, Central Bank and Educomp Solutions fell 2.6-3.6%.

In the smallcap space, Hindustan Motors, Sundaram-Clayton, Nahar Spinning, Brigade Enterprises and Sarasind went up 8-15.7% while Lloyds Metals, Geekay Finance, JMD Telefilms, Nagarjuna Agri and HBL Power slipped 4-5.7%.

Tata Chemicals acquired 9.8 lakh Rallis' shares at Rs 908.5/share via preferential allotment and hiked stake in Rallis to 50.06% from 45.97%.

Nagarjuna Construction has received five orders worth Rs 722 crore. The stock was flat.

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