Sensex, broader markets stay up; SBI, Reliance, TCS lead

The 30-share BSE Sensex stayed higher due to consistent buying interest in banks and metals stocks. Index heavyweights Reliance Industries and TCS too were quite supportive, both rising 0.7% each. However, the fall in Tata Motors, Bharti, ONGC and ITC has limited the upside.

The BSE benchmark gained 90 points at 16,078.42 and the NSE benchmark moved up 32.90 points to 4,881.05. The broader markets outperformed benchmarks - the BSE Midcap Index rose 1% and Smallcap went up 0.75%.

Asian markets too maintained upmove - Hang Seng and Nikkei rose 0.5% each; Straits Times, Kospi and Taiwan Weighted were up 0.6-1.1% whereas Shanghai was flat.

Back home, country's largest lender State Bank of India and private sector lender HDFC Bank rallied 1.7% each while rival ICICI Bank was up 0.7%.

Among metals stocks, Hindalco, Sterlite Industries and Tata Steel moved up 1-3%.

However, top commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors dropped 1.4% and top telecom operator Bharti Airtel was down 0.7%.

In the second line shares, Future Capital Holdings gained 2% and Pantaloon Retail went up 4.5% after Kishore Biyani, CEO, Pantaloon said that Future Group had decided to sell its stake of 54% in Future Capital Holdings. The sale will be conducted in two tranches. In the first tranche 40% will be sold followed by an open offer of 26% by Warburg Pincus at a price of Rs 162 a share. This will give Future Group an equity value of Rs 1,050 crore and helped to reduce debt burden.

Jaypee Infra climbed 10% and Jaiprakash Associates rose 2% as Yamuna expressway is close to being operationalised and UP government is expected to finalise toll rates soon.

Advancing shares outnumbered declining by 1118 to 481 on the BSE.

Most active stocks on the BSE were Pipavav Defence (up 0.7%) with 31,45,626 equity shares, Tube Investment (up 2%) with 18,10,217 shares and Indraprastha Gas (down 0.2%) with 5,62,275.