Mumbai, Oct 7 : Indian stock markets continued their upward trend on Tuesday, supported by buying in major stocks such as ICICI Bank, ITC and more.

However, profit booking in select banking stocks limited the overall gains during the early trading hours.

The Sensex, which rose more than 100 points in early trade, was trading at 81,843, up 52 points or 0.06 per cent.

The Nifty also gained 34 points or 0.14 per cent to reach 25,112 after hitting an intra-day high of 25,140.

Among the top gainers on the Sensex were Power Grid, Bajaj Finance, HCL Tech, Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank, Ultratech Cement, NTPC, Hindustan Unilever, Bajaj Finserv, and BEL, which rose between 0.3 per cent and 1.6 per cent.

On the other hand, Trent, Axis Bank, Tata Motors, TCS, SBI, Kotak Bank, Tech Mahindra, HDFC Bank, and Infosys were among the major losers, slipping up to 2.7 per cent.

In the broader market, the Nifty MidCap index gained 0.08 per cent, while the Nifty SmallCap index rose 0.41 per cent -- showing continued interest from investors in smaller companies.

Among sectoral indices, Nifty Metal and Nifty IT were the top performers, each gaining 0.4 per cent.

The Nifty PSU Bank index was the worst hit, falling 0.3 per cent due to profit booking in public sector lenders.

Analysts said that overall market sentiment remains positive, though some volatility may persist due to profit-taking at higher levels.

"The ongoing mild rally in the market has the potential to gain momentum. The FII selling in India is slowly declining since the sharp appreciation in other markets has pushed up their valuations and the valuation differential between India and other markets has come down,' analysts said.

'Since there is huge short position in the market any positive news can trigger short-covering, further aiding the rally," they added.

/IANS