Markets marginally up, heavyweights lead

Nifty flat at 5,322

Markets continue to trade marginally higher led by Infosys and Reliance Industries. At 11.20am, the Sensex was up six points at 17563 and the Nifty was flat at 5322.

In the broader markets the midcap and the smallcap indices were up 0.4% each outperforming the BSE benchmark index which was flat with a positive bias.

Among the sectoral indices, Realty and Oil & Gas indices advanced 1% each followed by Consumer Durables, PSU, Capital Goods, Health care and Power indices up 0.3-0.5%. Meanwhile, Auto and Bankex were the only indices in the negative, down 0.3% each.

The top gainers among the Sensex stocks were Maruti Suzuki, Bharti Airtel, Gail India, Sterlite Industries, ONGC and BHEL up 1-2%.Bajaj Auto, Infosys, Reliance Industries and HDFC which added between 0.6-0.8% were the other notable gainers.

Sun Pharma advanced nearly 1% on reports that the company has upped the buy-out price for its Israeli unit Taro Pharma by 60 percent, winning over Taro's board and ending a long battle to gain full control of the U.S. listed drugmaker.

On the other hand, the losers among the Sensex stocks were Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, SBI and ITC down 1-2%.Tata Steel, TCS, Coal India and Mahindra & Mahindra were some of the other scrips in the negative, losing 0.5-0.6%

Among other stocks, Subex Limited was trading higher by 10% at Rs 14.67, bouncing back 21% from intra-day low after the company said that it has been awarded a five-year deal to deploy its industry leading revenue operations centre (ROC) fraud management and revenue assurance solutions across 14 networks of the MTN Group.

Technocraft Industries (India) was locked at upper circuit filter of 10% at Rs 70 extending its Friday’s 20% rally on reporting net profit at Rs 22.15 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2012, against net loss of Rs 7.32 crore in previous year quarter. Net sales grew 36% at Rs 167 crore on year-on-year basis.

The market breadth was negative on the BSE. 1237 stocks declined while 964 stocks declined.