Markets at day's highs; Sensex up 300 points

The markets have extended gains in the noon session, led by a rebound in  IT stocks and strength in index heavyweights such as ICICI, Tata Motors and ITC. 

The Sensex is at 22,604, higher by 327 points and the Nifty is at 6772, up 96 points.

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(Updated at 1.15pm)

After coming of their day's highest levels, key indices resumed their upmove in afternoon deals led by private lender ICICI Bank, automobile manufacturer Tata Motors, cigarette to hotels conglomerate ITC and oil & gas behemoth Reliance Industries.  

At 1315hrs, the 30-share Sensex was up 209 points at 22,486 and the 50-share was up 59 points at 6,734.

Investors bet aggressively on the day when voting in underway in 121 Lok Sabha constituencies of the electorate in 12 states across the country in round five of the national election that ends on May 12.

The rupee was trading marginally higher at Rs 60.44 compared to the previous close of Rs 60.39. The rupee had dropped for a third straight session on Wednesday to end at 60.39, its worst falling streak since late-January, as profit-taking in the domestic share market by offshore investors hurt the rupee.

Asian stocks staged a recovery paring early losses and were trading with marginal gains.  The Nikkei was up 0.1%, Shanghai Composite was trading flat with positive bias while Hong Kong was trading 0.2% higher.

Reliance Industries was up 1.3% ahead of its fourth quarter earnings to be released on Friday.

TCS posted a 48.2 per cent rise in net profit for the quarter ended March 31 (according to Indian generally-accepted accounting principles, or GAAP), in line with the Street’s expectations. Its consolidated revenue rose 31.2 per cent over the year-ago quarter to Rs 21,551 crore. The stock was up 1.2% after slipping 1% in early trades.

HCL Technologies is trading over 1% higher after reporting its third quarter results. The company reported a net profit of Rs 1,624 crore compared to Rs 1,496 crore in the quarter ended Decemeber 2013, posting an uptick of 8.55%. The IT services exporter beat market expectations with a 59% y-o-y rise in March-quarter profit, helped by increasing demand for outsourcing services. The Noida-based firm had posted a net profit of Rs 1,021 crore in the corresponding quarter of last fiscal (2012-13).The company follows July-June fiscal.

HDFC Bank is trading weaker by 2% at Rs 711 in an otherwise firm market on reports that MSCI has further reduced the weightage of the bank in MSCI India Index. MSCI has cut the weightage as foreign shareholding in HDFC Bank has exceeded the permissible limit.

In the financials segment, ICICI Bank, HDFC, SBI, Axis Bank were up 1-2% each.

HDFC Bank was down nearly 2% on reports that MSCI has cut the bank's weightage in MSCI India index.

Among other shares, Mindtree has rallied nearly 5% at Rs 1,445 on the BSE after its board recommended the issue of bonus shares in the ratio of one equity share for every equity share held.

Radico Khaitan is locked at the lower circuit for the third day in a row, down 5% at Rs 117, also its lowest level since September 2013 on the NSE, on media reports that the Japanese brewer and distiller Suntory Holdings (Suntory) may call off its deal with the company.

Shares of Hindustan Construction Company were up over 3% at Rs 18.60 after the company said it has been awarded a Rs. 300 crore contract by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd.

Shares of infrastructure major NCC were up over 4% at Rs 47.15 on the BSE on talk that the company plans to sell select highway assets with a view to reduce its debt.

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap and small-cap indices were up almost 1% outperforming the benchamark Sensex's 0.9% upmove.

Market breadth was strong with 1441 advances and 1063 losers on the BSE.