Following increases in Realty, Consumer Durables, and Consumer Discretionary companies, Indian equity markets maintained their upward momentum in the midday session and continued to trade in positive territory.

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Blue-chip companies such as Titan, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Asian Paints saw healthy purchasing. Traders found some consolation in the fact that Western sanctions imposed on Russia in response to Russian troop moves in Ukraine may temper Moscow’s confrontational tone and provide for some leeway in avoiding war.

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On the global front, Asian markets were trading higher with Taiwan Weighted strengthen 86.44 points or 0.48% to 18,055.73, Hang Seng increased 160.02 points or 0.68% to 23,680.02, Shanghai Composite gained 28.44 points or 0.82% to 3,485.59, KOSPI rose 16.21 points or 0.6% to 2,723.00 and Jakarta Composite was up by 23.79 points or 0.35% to 6,885.78. On the other hand, Nikkei 225 slipped 461.26 points or 1.71% to 26,449.61 and Straits Times was down by 1.53 points or 0.04% to 3,399.05.

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The Sensex is presently trading at 57,614.97, up 314.29 points or 0.55% from a low of 57,398.74 and a high of 57,733.37. On the index, there were 25 stocks that advanced and 5 stocks that declined.

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The broader indices were trading in green with the BSE Midcap index rising 1.27%, while the Small cap index was up by 1.70%. The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 3.06%, Consumer Durables up by 2.29%, Consumer Discretionary up by 1.56%, Utilities up by 1.34%, Industrials up by 1.11%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE.

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The top gainers on the Sensex were Titan Co up by 3.07%, Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 2.97%, Asian Paints up by 1.72%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.53% and Bajaj Finance was up by 1.27%. On the flip side, NTPC was down by 0.34%, Hindustan Unilever was down by 0.24%, Larsen & Toubro was down by 0.12%, Nestle was down by 0.09% and ICICI Bank was down by 0.07% were the top losers.

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The Nifty is presently trading at 17,180.15, up 87.95 points or 0.51% after moving between 17,120.00 and 17,220.70. On the index, there were 37 stocks that advanced and 13 stocks that declined.

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The top gainers on Nifty were Kotak Mahindra Bank up by 2.89%, Titan Co up by 2.85%, Asian Paints up by 1.73%, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.64% and Adani Ports was up by 1.50%. On the flip side, ONGC was down by 2.15%, JSW Steel was down by 0.75%, Hero MotoCorp was down by 0.68%, NTPC down by 0.34% and Shree Cement was down by 0.31% were the top losers.