The 30-share benchmark, BSE Sensex maintained its strength in the previous trading hour on the back of sustained buying action witnessed across board.

The Sensex also touched an intraday high of 15587.76. Midcap and Smallcap index climbed 0.95% and 0.98% respectively.

At 1.07 p.m., the BSE Sensex gained 173.72 points at 15,569.54, whereas NSE Nifty stood at 4,616.85, up 44.35 points.

Out of the total 2,550 stocks traded at the BSE, 1,572 advanced, 910 declined, while 68 remained unchanged.

Among the sectoral indices, BSE Bankex zoomed more than 3%, Realty surged 2.81%, and rest all indices were trading up marginally.

The top gainers at the BSE Sensex were HDFC Bank and HDFC, which surged over 4% each to Rs 1206.05 and Rs 2257.00 respectively. L&T, SBI, ONGC, Jaiprakash Associates, Wipro, Maruti, NTPC, TCS, BHEL, Tata Motors and ITC were among the other gainers in the pack.

The major losers at the BSE Sensex included Satyam, Reliance Comm, Bharti Airtel and Tata Steel. The other losers were RIL and Grasim.