The Sensex continued to trade strongly and maintained 17,000 mark on account of constant buying witnessed in banking, metal and IT stocks.

Mirroring strong buying at side counters, BSE Midcap and Smallcap index surged 0.50% and 0.97% respectively.

The 30-share index, BSE Sensex opened with a gain of 15.55 points, at 16,868.46 on Wednesday.

At 12:59 p. m., the 30-share index Sensex, which belled the day after gaining 15.55 points at 16,868.46, stood at 17,034.40, up 181.49 points. It also hit a high of 17,053.98 and a low of 16,868.46.

In the meantime, Nifty gained 62.20 points at 5,069.05 after touching a high of 5,069.60 and a low of 5,004.35.

Among sectoral indices, BSE Bankex remained the top gainer with 1.56%, Metal increased 1.32%, IT surged 1.10%, Oil & Gas zoomed 1.01% and Capital Goods was up by 0.99%.

The top gainers' in the Sensex pack included Sterlite Ind, which climbed 2.82%, SBI surged 2.71%, HDFC Bank climbed 1.86%, BHEL zoomed 1.76%, Sun Pharma rose 1.70% and Wipro gained
1.64%.

The top losers' list contained NTPC down 0.61%, Tata Motors declined 0.47%, HDFC fell 0.37%, and ITC dropped 0.28%.

Brokerage firm Anagram Finance said that a closure above 5,050 level in the Nifty and 17,000 level in the Sensex should be an indication to be optimistic again, till then selling should be favored on rallies.

"This holiday shortened week, participation is lacking in the markets. Yesterday was one of the lowest volumes day in markets in this rally since March. Though, today we expect window dressing by fund managers, selling laggards in favour of out performers to spruce up portfolios may make quarter-end trading volatile," it added.