On the back of strong buying activity across capital goods, bank, PSU and oil scrips, the 30-share index Sensex made entry into the optimistic terrain after a feeble opening today.

Select metal, telecom and FMCG stocks remained up on firm buying activity.

The scrips from IT sector were weak. Realty, pharmaceutical and auto stocks were quite subdued today.

The midcap and smallcap stocks gained during mid morning trade.

The Sensex was trading 32.17 points up at 17,987.99 while the broad-based Nifty gained 10.10 points to trade at 5404.

The market breadth was sturdy as it saw 1614 advancements as against 991 declinations.

RCom shares surged 2.3% at Rs 191.30 on news that Emirates Telecommunications Corp is on the brink of purchasing a 26% equity stake in the company for around $3 billion.

RCom and Emirates Tele are thinking coalescing Reliance with Swan Telecom, the Indian firm in which Etisalat possesses an equity stake of 45%.

HDFC remained up by 1.7% at Rs 3072.

The other gainers were L&T, Bharti Airtel, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hindustan Unilever, Tata Steel, State Bank of India, Hindlaco, ONGC and BHEL.

On Nifty, the scrips, which recorded sharp to moderate gains comprised GAIL India, Kotak Bank, Idea Cellular, BPCL, PNB, Siemens, Rel Capital and Ambuja Cements.

Capital goods scrips including BEML, Praj Ind, Punj Lloyd, Havells India, Gammon India, Rel Industrial Infrastructure, Crompton Greaves, Usha Martin and Bharat Electronics were the prominent gainers.

Canara Bank has climbed around 6.5% on account of positive results.