Heavyweights buoy markets

The markets continued the upmove in the noon deals on the back of buying visible in the heavyweight pockets. The Sensex was at 16,451, up 218 points and the Nifty added 61 points to 4,949.

According to Hormuz Maloo, Technical Analyst, Geojit BNP Paribas Securities, "The Nifty seems to be in a short term uptrend but after today's rise it seems to be slightly overbought in the short term. I think that the quarterly results of Infosys, which are due on Wednesday will decide whether this short term uptrend continues for some time or not."

Most of the Sensex stocks were trading higher. Tata Motors was the top gainer, the stock jumped 5.6% to Rs 168. Tata Power gained 4% to Rs 102. DLF, Sterlite Industries, Tata Steel, HDFC, index bellwether Reliance Industries, Hindalco and ICICI Bank also added 2-3.7% each in trades thus far. Infosys was trading stronger by 1.8% at Rs 2,552 ahead of its quarterly results.

On the other hand, Maruti Suzuki shed 2.3% to Rs 1,087 after the workers at the Manesar plant went on stay-in strike from Friday afternoon affecting production. Larsen & Toubro, Sun Pharma and State Bank of India were also among the notable losers.

Among the individual stocks, Reliance Capital moved up 3% to Rs 332 after announcing completion of the transaction for sale of a 26% stake in Reliance Life Insurance to Nippon Life Insurance.

Tata Coffee was trading higher by 5% at Rs 845 on reports that Starbucks Corp is close to finalising an equity joint venture with the company for opening coffee shops in India.

On the sectoral front, all the indices were trading higher. BSE Realty index was the top gainer, up 2.2% to 1,775. Oil & Gas index jumped 1.7% or 143 points to 8,594. Consumer Durables, Auto, IT, Power Metal and Bankex indices also added 0.8-1.6% each.

Indiabulls Real Estate was the top gainer among the realty stocks, up 3.5% to Rs 73. HDIL, Sobha Developers, Unitech, Sunteck Realty, Oberoi Realty and Parsvanath Developers were also trading higher by 1.4-3.4% each.

The broader markets were also trading on a firm note. The BSE mid-cap index was at 6,016, up 57 points and the small-cap index added 50 points to 6,772.

The overall breadth was positive as 1,558 stocks were advancing while 946 were declining.