Broader markets outperform; Metal stocks firm up

Metal stocks were among the top gainers led by Tata Steel which rose nearly 4%

The broader markets continued to outperform the benchmark share indices even as metal shares continued to trade firm. Further, profit taking was seen in private banks.

At 10:45am, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 51 points at 25,201 and the Nifty50 was down 15 points at 7,668.    

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were up 0.4%-0.5% each.

The Indian rupee was trading marginally lower at 66.75 to the US dollar compared to the previous close of 66.72.

Investors will keenly await October's industrial production data, which is expected to be announced after market hours. Indian industrial output was forecast to rise 7.8% annually in October, its strongest pace in more than three years and much faster than the 3.6% seen in September.

BSE Metal index was the top gainer along with Healthcare and IT indices while Capital Goods and FMCG indices were among the top losers.

In the metal pack, Tata Steel was up 3.7% while Vedanta was up 1.8% .

Infosys extended gains and was up nearly 1% after positive comments from CEO Vishal Sikka at an Barclay's conference saying that the strategies are working and the company is on track to industry leading growth.

Reliance Industries extended gains and was up 0.6%.

Maruti Suzuki was up 0.5%. The auro major will hike prices of its vehicles across models by up to Rs 20,000 from January to offset impact of rising costs and weakening of rupee against dollar, joining rivals in making such a move.

Shares of Sun Pharma are up almost 1% at Rs 763 in a subdued market after the drug maker announced that it has entered into an agreement with Israel based Weizmann Institute of Science and Spain's Health Research Institute of Santiago de Compostela to develop products for treating neurological diseases like brain stroke and glioblastoma, a lethal brain cancer.

In the private banking space, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank were down 0.5%-0.6% each.

Among other stocks, cement stocks were up after the Competition Appellate Tribunal set aside the Rs 6,300 crore on 11 cement companies. ACC,UltraTech cement, Ambuja Cements and India Cements were up 1-2% each.

Shares of Vinati Organics are up over 2% at Rs 389 on the BSE after the company announced that it has entered into long term tripartite agreement with USA & Japan based chemical companies for supply of a customized product.

Shares of Siemens have nearly gained 1% to Rs 1158.80 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) after it won an order worth Rs 102 crore for Power Transmission system in West Bengal.