Sensex and Nifty traded sharply higher during the noon trading session on Wednesday, with the Nifty climbing above the 24,200 mark as gains in IT, FMCG and metal stocks lifted the benchmarks.

At 12:55 hours, the 30-share benchmark index was trading at 77618.78 up by 852.86 points or by 1.11 % and then NSE Nifty was at 24210.65 up by 225.3 points or by 0.94 %.

Sensex touched intraday high of 77653.67 and intraday low of 77333.24 The NSE Nifty touched intraday high of 24247.8 and intraday low of 24136.75

The top gainers of the BSE Sensex pack were Hindustan Unilever Ltd. (Rs. 2108.00,+4.19%), Infosys Ltd. (Rs. 1150.45,+4.04%), Larsen & Toubro Ltd. (Rs. 3935.00,+2.67%), Tata Steel Ltd. (Rs. 187.45,+2.60%), Bharti Airtel Ltd. (Rs. 1948.00,+2.40%), among others.

The top losers of the BSE Sensex pack were Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone Ltd. (Rs. 1732.95,-2.49%), Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (Rs. 3230.00,-1.30%), Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. (Rs. 281.70,-1.26%), Bajaj Finserv Ltd. (Rs. 1912.90,-0.73%), Bharat Electronics Ltd. (Rs. 386.50,-0.68%), among others.

TECk index was at 15691.38 up by 358.87 points or by 2.34%. Tejas Networks Ltd. (Rs. 522.95,+5.73%), Infosys Ltd. (Rs. 1150.45,+4.04%), Sun TV Network Ltd. (Rs. 512.00,+3.92%), HFCL Ltd. (Rs. 194.30,+3.90%), RailTel Corporation of India Ltd. (Rs. 293.30,+2.70%),.

Realty index was at 7154.2 down by -36.99 points or by -0.51%. Phoenix Mills Ltd. (Rs. 1903.00,-5.89%), Oberoi Realty Ltd. (Rs. 1827.00,-0.05%), Prestige Estates Projects Ltd. (Rs. 1682.80,-0.01%),.

The Market breadth, indicating the overall strength of the market, was weak. On BSE out of total shares traded 4416 , shares advanced were 2650 while 1531 shares declined and 235 were unchanged.