The frontline equity benchmarks traded near the day's high with major gains during the noon trade amid positive global cues. The Nifty marched above the 17,550 level. All the sectoral indices on the NSE were in the green, with banking and metal shares gaining the most.

At 12:40 hours, the 30-share benchmark index was trading at 59641.32 up by 731.97 points or by 1.24 % and then NSE Nifty was at 17560.65 up by 238.75 points or by 1.38 %.

Sensex touched intraday high of 59764.13 and intraday low of 59231.58 The NSE Nifty touched intraday high of 17579 and intraday low of 17427.7

The top gainers of the BSE Sensex pack were State Bank of India (Rs. 558.90,+4.70%), Bharti Airtel Ltd. (Rs. 758.10,+2.42%), IndusInd Bank Ltd. (Rs. 1124.00,+1.97%), ICICI Bank Ltd. (Rs. 868.90,+1.75%), Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd. (Rs. 2645.90,+1.67%), among others.

The top losers of the BSE Sensex pack were UltraTech Cement Ltd. (Rs. 7201.00,-1.22%), Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (Rs. 1099.70,-0.91%), Asian Paints Ltd. (Rs. 2819.55,-0.49%), Nestle India Ltd. (Rs. 18420.00,-0.38%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Rs. 964.70,-0.05%), among others.

PSU index was at 9748.73 up by 200.02 points or by 2.09%. Union Bank of India (Rs. 71.60,+7.07%), Punjab & Sind Bank (Rs. 28.21,+6.69%), UCO Bank (Rs. 27.56,+6.20%), Indian Bank (Rs. 290.10,+5.78%), Bank of India (Rs. 79.69,+5.34%),.

Auto index was at 29277.95 down by 37.24 points or by 0.13%. Tube Investments of India Ltd. (Rs. 2762.30,-1.96%), Samvardhana Motherson International Ltd. (Rs. 80.02,-0.93%), Bosch Ltd. (Rs. 18005.30,-0.84%), Cummins India Ltd. (Rs. 1583.25,-0.81%), Motherson Sumi Wiring India Ltd. (Rs. 49.96,-0.60%),.

The Market breadth, indicating the overall strength of the market, was weak. On BSE out of total shares traded 3637 , shares advanced were 2220 while 1282 shares declined and 135 were unchanged.