Mumbai, Oct 8 (IANS): India equity indices were trading in the green on Tuesday with gains in shares of UltraTech Cement, NTPC and L&T in BSE's benchmark.

At 9.59 a.m., Sensex was up 258 points or 0.32 per cent at 81,308 and Nifty was up 58.20 points or 0.23 per cent at 24,853.

In the Sensex pack, UltraTech Cement, M&M, Axis Bank, HUL, SBI, L&D, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, NTPC, Asian Paints, Kotak Mahindra Bank and IndusInd Bank were the top gainers.

Tata Steel, Tata Motors, JSW Steel, Wipro, Titan, HCL Tech, Infosys, TCS, Power Grid, Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Finance, Maruti Suzuki and Nestle were the top losers.

The rally was driven by banking stocks. Nifty Bank was up 262 points or 0.56 per cent at 50,759.

Among the sectoral indices, fin service, PSU Bank, FMCG, media, private bank, infra, services and healthcare were major gainers. Auto, IT, metal, realty and energy were major laggards.

Buying was also seen in the midcap and smallcap stocks. Nifty midcap 100 index was up 376 points or 0.66 per cent at 57,676 and Nifty smallcap 100 index was up 108 points or 0.60 per cent at 18,351.

Mixed trading is happening in the Asian market. Tokyo, Hong Kong and Seoul are trading in the red, while Bangkok and Jakarta are in the green. The US stock markets closed in the red on Monday

According to the market experts, "Market has turned weak responding to negative cues from escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, massive FPI selling and concerns surrounding the election results due today. The most important trigger which pulled the Nifty 5.6 per cent down from the peak has been the sustained big FPI selling during the last six trading days."

"An important data to note is that the net FPI selling of Rs 50,011 crore during the last six trading sessions has been more than offset by the DII buying of Rs 53,203 crore. The best strategy now is to accumulate high quality, fairly valued blue chips like the leading financials and IT stocks," they added.