Sensex trims some early gains; up 78 pts in late morning deals

Erasing some of the early gains, theBSE benchmark Sensex was trading higher by 78 points in late morning deals on buying mainly in FMCG, power, IT and consumer durable sectors, following government's decision to relax FDI rules for a number of sectors.

Erasing some of the early gains, theBSE benchmark Sensex was trading higher by 78 points in late morning deals on buying mainly in FMCG, power, IT and consumer durable sectors, following government's decision to relax FDI rules for a number of sectors.

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Telecom stocks rose after the government announced increase in FDI ceiling in the telecom services sector to 100 per cent from 74%, with Idea Cellular hitting record high and Reliance Communications hitting 52-week high.

Reliance Communications rose 2.43% to Rs 149.45 after striking 52-week high of Rs 151.25 in intraday trade today. Bharti Airtel (up 1.56%), Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (up 6.5%) and MTNL (up 2.38%).

Gainers from other sectors were Dr Reddy's Lab 1.97% followed by TCS 1.52%, ITC 1.46%, BHEL 1.45%, M&M 1.45%, Tata Power 1.40%, NTPC 1.22% and RIL 1.10%.

The BSE benchmark Sensex resumed higher at 19,928.95 and firmed up further to 19,970.02. But, it declined afterwards to 19,915.11 before quoting at 19,929.14 at 1030hrs, still showing a gain of 77.91 points of 0.39% from its last close.

Asian shares were mostly lower in their early trade on caution as two-day congressional testimony from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke begins today. Key benchmark indices in China, Japan, Taiwan and Singapore were down 0.34% to 0.58% while indices in Hong Kong, South Korea and Indonesia were up 0.23% to 0.81%.