Nifty hovering near 8,850; Tata Motors up over 2%

Bharti Airtel, HUL, Tata Motors, Hindalco and Tata Steel are the top gainers

Benchmark indices are trading firm helped by the gains in select auto and index heavyweights like ITC and Tata Motors along with metal and select bank shares.
 
At 10:18AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 190 points at 29,285 and the 50-share Nifty was up 51 points at 8,857.
 
 In the broader market, both the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices, up 0.5% and 0.4% each are moving largely in-line the front-liners. Market breadth in BSE is positive with 1,192 advances against 777 declines.     
 

 
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 390 crore on Friday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

 
Buzzing Stocks
 
10 of the 12 sectoral indices of BSE are in green. BSE Realty index, up 1.7%, is the top gainer followed by BSE FMCG index, up 1.1% and BSE Metal and Auto indices, up 0.9% each.  
 
HDFC Bank has gained 0.7% on better-than-expected third quarter earnings. HDFC Bank, India’s second largest private sector bank, has reported a 20 per cent growth in net profit in October-December quarter to Rs 2,794.5 crore.
 
SBI is trading higher by 1.2% and HDFC is up 0.4% while ICICI Bank is down 0.2% and Axis Bank is flat.

 
IT shares are trading mixed. TCS and Wipro are trading higher by 0.3% and 0.5% each while Infosys is down 0.2%. Infosys has announced a definitive agreement to fully acquire Panaya Inc., a leading provider of automation technology for large scale enterprise software management, in cash, for an enterprise value of $200 million.
 
Metal stocks are trading firm in early trades. Sesa Sterlite is up 1.3%, Hindalco is up 1.2% and Tata Steel is up 0.7%.
Bharti Airtel up 2.7%, HUL up 2.5%,ITC up 1.3% and Tata Motors up, 2% are major gainers of the hour.
 
ONGC is trading higher by 0.7% despite its net profit for the third quarter dropping 50 %. The net profit dropped to Rs 3,571.2 crore during the quarter, compared to Rs 7,125.9 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year (2013-14).

 
RIL is up 0.4%. Stung by lower-than-expected rise in natural gas prices, Canada's Niko Resources has put up for sale its stake in Reliance Industries' KG-D6 gas block, saying there is uncertainty over the long-term price outlook in India. Niko holds 10 per cent stake in the KG-D6 block, where a total of 20 oil & gas discoveries had been made and three out of these are in production.
 
Sun Pharma has lost nearly 3% after the drug major reported a 6.92% decline in its consolidated net profit at Rs 1,425.07 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2014. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 1,531.09 crore for the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

 
Among other shares,  Suzlon Energy is up 19% after Sun Pharmaceuticals promoter Dilip Shanghvi and family acquired 23% stake in Suzlon Energy for an equity investment of Rs 1,800 crore. The infusion of funds will help the company reduce its debt and also focus on growth.