Sensex steady; auto, metal indices lead

The Sensex is moving steady and is now at 17,053, up 204 points. The NSE Nifty is at 5,062, up 66 points. All the sectoral indices are in green except the IT index. The auto, metal and the realty indices lead the rally, up around 3% each. Among the BSE-30 stocks, Maruti has topped the list of gainers, up 4.5% at Rs 1,545. Tata Steel and Sterlite have advanced over 3% each to Rs 538 and Rs 863, respectively. Hero Honda, Reliance Communications, Grasim Industries, SBI, Sun Pharma, Tata Motors and DLF have added over 2.5% each. Some of the other major gainers were Hindalco, Bharti Airtel, Mahindra & Mahindra, ACC and Hindustan Unilever. TCS, Wipro and Infosys are the only marginal losers, down 0.5% each. The market breadth is positive, out of 2,649 shares trades, 1,789 have advanced and 768 have declined so far on the BSE.