The 30-share BSE Sensex gained further on emergence of fresh buying action in heavy-weight stocks, led by power and real estate stocks.

It touched a high of 15,957.24 during the noon trades.

The country’s annual inflation rate has climbed up to over three-year high of 7.41 percent for the week ended on March 29 on the back of increasing pressure on the central bank to further tighten up supply of money in its approaching annual credit policy later this month.

The wholesale price-based inflation, which was 7% during the last week, increased this time mainly because of growing rates of fruits and vegetables, pulses, cereals, condiment and spices and a few manufactured items.

At 12:44 pm, the Sensex gained 217.66 at 15,912.76, whereas NSE Nifty made 63.6 points at 4,796.60. The market experienced 1,610 advancements as compared to 839 declinations.

Among the sectoral indices, BSE Power and Oil & Gas gained more than 2% each, BSE Metal and Realty arose 1% each, BSE Auto climbed up 0.93%, BSE Bankex gained 0.56% and BSE IT rose 0.90%.

The major gainers at the BSE Sensex were L&T which soared 4.06% to Rs 2,787.00, BHEL, which rose over 3% to Rs 1,822.00 and RIL rose 2.85% to Rs 2,538.10. Satyam, REL, Hindalco, TCS, Tata Steel, RComm, DLF, Maruti and NTPC also moved up.

Losers at the BSE Sensex which include HUL, which declined 0.79% to Rs 238.10, Ranbaxy dipped 0.59% to Rs 448.00 and Grasim was down 0.39% to Rs 2,560.00.