Markets firm up; L&T up 1.6%

Markets firm up in the late noon trades as gains in select banking shares and L&T pare losses. 

At 1.58 PM, the 30-share Sensex is up 74 points at 28,150 and the 50-share Nifty is up 24 points at 8,518.

In the broader market, both the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are trading higher by 0.5% and 0.2% each.

Coal India, Sun Pharma, Sesa Sterlite, L&T and M&M are the top gainer on the 30-share Sensex and are trading higher between 1.5-2.5%. 

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(updated at 12.56 PM)
Benchmark indices continue to trade in a tight range in the noon trades as gains in banking shares along with L&T offset weakness in technology shares along with Index heavyweights including SBI and Tata Motors

At 12.56 PM, the 30-share Sensex is up 49 points at 28,125 and the 50-share Nifty is up 13 points at 8,507.

In the broader market, both the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices have performed better than the front-liners with gains of 0.4% and 0.3% each. Market breadth in BSE is positive with 1,383 advances against 1,274 declines.

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net buyers in Indian equities worth Rs 1,738.24 crore on Thursday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

The Indian rupee was trading slightly higher at 62.02 to the US dollar compared to Thursday's close of 62.06.

Key Stocks:

On the sectoral front, BSE IT index is the top loser down 0.5%. However, BSE Consumer Durables is the top gaining index up over 2% followed by BSE Capital Goods and Power indices trading higher by 1%.

HUL is up nearly 1.6% after hitting a record high of Rs 944 in intra-day trade on BSE today. The stock has rallied 25% in past 10 trading sessions from Rs 756 on January 2, 2015.

HDFC Bank has extended gains from yesterday and is up around 1.5%. Axis Bank is trading higher by nearly 1% post of its Q3 results. Axis Bank today reported a Q3 net profit of Rs 1,900 crore compared to Rs 1,604 crore in the year-ago period, an uptick of 18.5%.

Total income rose to Rs 10,928 crore for the quarter ended 31 December, 2014 compared to Rs 9,433 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal.

Metal stocks are trading mixed against the backdrop of sustained decline in global commodity prices. Sesa Sterlite has gained around 1.5% while Tata Steel is trading flat with negative bias  and Hindalco is trading down by 0.6%.

Healthcare shares are trading higher. Sun Pharma and Cipla have gained over 1% each and Dr Reddys Lab is up 1.4%.

Reliance is trading higher by 0.4% and Wipro is trading with marginal losses ahead of their Q3 results.

TCS has declined around 1.4% on sub-par Q3 results and Infosys is down 0.3%.

Among major losers, Tata Motors has declined over 1%, SBI is down 1.6%, Hero Motocop is down around 1% and GAIL is down around 0.9%. A major fire broke out at GAIL's natural gas pipeline in South Delhi's Satyaniketan area after it was perforated by civic construction contractors but there were no casualties reported.

Bharti Airtel has declined around 2.5%. The comapny has clarified that it has not received any order demanding Rs. 436 crore from Department of Telecom.