From correspondents in Maharashtra, India, 11:00 AM IST

Indian equity markets, which opened with a gain Fridfay, stayed in the positive zone in initial trade, with demand for banking, realty and capital goods stocks.

The 30-share benchmark index of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the Sensex, opened with a gain of 122.68 points at 13,234.53. Ten minutes into trading, it was at 13,208.00 points, still with a gain of 96.15 points or 0.73 percent from its closing figure Thursday.

At the same time the S and amp;P CNX Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange was trading at 3,966.70 points with a gain of 19.50 points or 0.49 percent from its last close.

The market breadth was positive. On BSE, 742 shares advanced, 444 declined and 26 remained unchanged.

ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and BHEL were among the top gainers while ACC, Ranbaxy Labs and Wipro were among the top losers in initial trade.

Other Asian markets were also trading higher.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)