Markets regain lost ground; benchmark indices up 0.4%

Gains in heavyweight names like TCS, HUL, L&T, ITC Reliance Industries and Bharti Airtel help the upmove

Markets have edged higher in the noon trades after a flat trading session on the back of gains in heavyweight names like TCS, HUL, L&T, ITC Reliance Industries and Bharti Airtel. AT 1300 hrs, the Sensex was up 73 points at 20031 and the Nifty had gained 21 points to trade at 6030.

In the broader markets, the midcap index continued to gain, up 0.8% and the smallcap index advanced 0.6%, both outperforming the BSE benchmark index which was up 0.4%.

On the macro front, India's headline inflation quickened to 4.86% in June, snapping a four-month easing trend, on higher food prices, government data showed on Monday.

June's reading, still within the central bank's comfort level, was lower than the 4.90% estimated by analysts in a Reuters poll. The wholesale price index -- India's main inflation measure -- rose an annual 4.70% in May, the slowest rise in more than three years.

In Asia, stocks rose, while the Australian dollar popped higher as investors heaved a sigh of relief after a batch of Chinese data showed the slowdown in the region's economic powerhouse was not as bad as feared.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan advanced 0.2%, erasing most of Friday's decline.

Mainland Chinese stocks climbed more than 1%, while gains were much smaller elsewhere in Asia. Japanese financial markets were closed for a public holiday.

Among the sectoral indices, except the Metal index which was down 0.3%, all the other indices were in the green. The ones leading the gains were Health Care, FMCG and Capital Goods indices which were up over 1% each.

Realty, Consumer Durables, Teck, Auto, Oil & Gas, Bankex and IT indices gained 0.2-0.8%.

The top gainers among the sensex-30 were Mahindra & Mahindra, TCS, Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever and Dr Reddys Lab gaining 2-2.5%.

Bajaj Auto, Wipro, Hindalco, Sun Pharma, Jindal Steel, Sterlite and SBI up 1-1.5%  were ten other notable gainers.

FMCG major ITC and Reliance Industries too gained 0.5% each.

Among the top losers was Tata Steel which slipped nearly 3% after ten company's European arm reported a record loss of 1.2 billion pounds for the year.

IT major Infosys too slipped nearly 2% on profit booking after the stellar 11% gain last Friday.

Coal India, NTPC, HDFC Bank, Tata Motors, BHEL and Gail India down 0.2-1.6% were the other major losers.

The market breadth was positive on the BSE. 1118 stocks advanced while 850 stocks declined.