Nifty strong; RIL, ONGC, ITC, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel lead

ALSO READ See Key Market Stats - Top Gainers/ Losers, Most Actives, Highs/Lows See how Global Markets are trading Indian ADRs Nifty BSE | NSE 09/02/12 Are Mutual Funds betting on Nifty?

At 14:55 hours IST, the Nifty continued to trade strong as buying interest was seen in heavyweights like Reliance Industries, ONGC, ITC, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel, SAIL and HUL. About 1.7% rise in European markets and 0.9% gain in the US index futures were also helping the Indian indices.

On the sectoral front, FMCG, private banking, oil & gas, metal, auto, select pharma, cement and power stocks were witnessing buying interest.

In the largecap space, heavyweight major Reliance Industries was up 3.4%. Tata Steel, ITC, ICICI Bank & ACC were up 2-3%. On the losing side, Bharti Airtel was down 3.6%. Jaiprakash Associates, Infosys, Hindalco & Wipro were down less than 1% each.

The Sensex was up 186.21 points or 1.09% at 17208.06, and the Nifty was up 58.25 points or 1.15% at 5110.70. About 1705 shares advanced, 1166 shares declined, and 561 shares were unchanged.

Nagarjuna Construction will sign Rs 1,800 crore road project with Oman. The stock gained 2.5%.

Whirlpool Mauritius' stake goes up to 75% versus 37% in Whirlpool India. The stock was up 2%.

Top gainers on the BSE Midcap: Aurobindo Pharma, Guj Mineral, Berger Paints, BF Utilities and HMT were up 5-9%.

Top losers on the BSE Midcap: KGN Industries, Gammon India, Balrampur Chini, REI Six Ten and JK Bank were down 4-10%.

Top gainers on the BSE Smallcap: Cambridge Sol, Mahindra Forg, Tata Sponge Iron, Indian Metals and Hikal were up 10-20%.

Top losers on the BSE Smallcap: Raj Oil Mills, PVP Ventures, Shristi Infra, Dhampur Sugar & Ruchinfra were down 4-5%.

Continued on the next page...