Paring initial gains on bouts of profit-booking, the Sensex on Monday maintained the up momentum on firm buying in auto, oil & gas and healthcare shares amid positive Asian markets.
The BSE 30-stock index, Sensex, resumed smartly higher at 19,820.56 and advanced to 19,856.43, but selling in heavyweights like realty and capital goods lowered it to 19,782.91, before quoting 19,813.71 at 1030 hrs, still up by 29.63 points, 0.15 pct from its last close.
The NSE 50-stock index Nifty was trading up by 7.50 points or 0.12 per cent at 6,023.65 at 1030 hrs.
Major gainers were - Maruti - 3.43 per cent, M&M (1.59 pc), Sun Pharma (1.15 pc), Hero Mot corp (1.11 pc) and wipro (1.02 pc).
Meanwhile, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) had bought shares worth Rs 1,164.41 crore last Friday, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.
Asian stocks were trading higher in early trade, with key indices in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Indonesia, trading 0.07-0.17 per cent on strong US pay roll data led optimism over the global economic recovery.
