The markets have pared their gains in the last few minutes. The Nifty has slipped below the 5,000-mark, and is now up 59 points at 4,990. The Sensex is up 190 points at 16,636.

There has been no respite in buying pressure this afternoon. The good news on the Reliance front was just the push needed to resurrect the markets from its prolonged state of despondency. And the global cues have facilitated the process. Wall Street had ended Friday's session in the green, Asian markets are up and the European markets have added in the region ogf an percent each. The Sensex is now quoting at 16691, stronger by 245 points and the Nifty is at 5008, up 77 points. All the sectoral indices on the BSE are in the green, with the oil and gas sector perking up by more than 3% thanks to the stellar gains in RIL.

The Ambani Group companies continue to hog the limelight.  Reliance Infra has strengthened by 11.6% at Rs 11.3, Reliance Communication has added 10.9% at Rs 148 and RIL has strengthened by 3.7% at Rs 1033. Reliance Industrial Infrastructure has soared by 13% at Rs 801, RNRL has spurted by 22% at Rs 54, Reliance Power has raced ahead by 10.2% at 152 and Reliance Capital is up 7.1% at Rs 686.

On the losers side, HDFC has weakened by 1.7% at Rs 2668, Tata Power has shed 0.2% at Rs 1256 and Grasim has lost 0.2% at Rs 2447.

The market breadth is strong. Out of 2774 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 2109 advancing stocks as against 602 declines.