The Indian equity benchmarks gained in morning trade led by gains in HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, TCS and Bajaj Finance.
However, the upside was capped owing to weakness in Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC, Asian Paints and Maruti Suzuki.
The Sensex rose as much as 228 points and Nifty 50 index moved above its important psychological level of 14,500.As of 9:22 am, the Sensex was up 95 points at 48,481 and Nifty advanced 50 points to 14,534.Eight of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty Metal index's over 1 per cent gain.
Nifty Media, IT, Auto, Pharma PSU Bank and Realty indexes were also trading higher.On the other hand, Nifty Bank, Financial Services and Private Bank indices were trading lower.Mid- and small-cap shares were witnessing mild buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 rose 0.3 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.62 per cent.Hindalco was top gainer in the Nifty 50 basket of shares, the stock roe 3.63 per cent to Rs 361.
Tatat Steel, Reliance Industries, JSW Steel, Bajaj Finance, Hero MotoCorp TCS, Power Grid, Bharti Airtel, Divi's Labs, HDFC Bank and ITC were also among the gainers.On the flipside, Axis Bank, SBI Life, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Life, HDFC, Tech Mahindra, BPCL and Nestle India were among the losers.The overall market breadth was positive as 1,512 shares were advancing while 563 were declining on the BSE.