The Sensex continued to trade in the positive terrain as better than expected annual rate of inflation boosted the market reaction. Intense buying was witnessed across index heavyweights.

Realty, banking, power and IT stocks have rallied sharply. BSE Midcap and Smallcap index gained 1.30% and 0.43% respectively.

The 30-share index, BSE Sensex today (Dec 18), started the day negatively at 9,710.20, down 5.09 points, after a fall of 2.62% on the previous working day.

At 01.55 p.m., the Sensex gained 209.11 points at 9,924.40, after hitting an intra-day high of 9,979.01 and an intra-day low of 9,633.04.

Meanwhile the broad based Nifty stood at 3,023.05, up 68.70 points, after touching an intra-day high of 3,032.40 and an intra-day low of 2,922.65.

Overall market breadth was positive as it saw 1,284 advancements as against 1,002 declinations.

The major gainers in the 30-share index were Satyam Computer Services (8.89%), D L F (6.38%), State Bank Of India(5.81%), ICICI Bank (5.56%), Reliance Energy (5.25%), and ITC (4.82%).

On the other hand, the major losers in the Sensex were Sterlite Industries (India) (2.86%), Tata Steel (2.86%), Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (1.47%), Reliance Industries (1.34%), and Hindalco Industries (0.64%).

For the week ended December 6, India's inflationary figures dropped further to 6.84% from 8% the week before.

The sharp fall was triggered largely by the drop in petrol and diesel prices.

The inflation rate stood at 3.84% during the same period of the last year.

The index for food articles fell 0.5%, while that of non-food articles climbed marginally to 234.6 points (provisional) from 234.4 points (provisional) during the week under review.

The index for fuels and lubricants also dropped by 3.7 percent to 332.1 points (provisional) from 345 (provisional) the previous week.

The index for the manufacturing sector declined by 0.3 percent to 202.4 points (provisional) from 203.1 (provisional) for the previous week.