Sensex gains over 150 points; Nifty nears 7,750

At 12:48 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 158 points at 25,259 and Nifty50 was up 30 points at 7,737

Benchmark indices continue to hold on to their gains amid positive European cues, along with buying demand among pharma and index heavyweights HDFC and Tata Motors leading the gains.

At 12:48 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 158 points at 25,259 and Nifty50 was up 30 points at 7,737. In the broader market, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap were up 0.3%-0.4%.

Oil prices climbed in Asia today with Brent breaching $45 a barrel as raging wildfires threatened to cut Canadian output and a decline in US crude production also boosted the commodity.

Meanwhile, rupee depreciated by 6 paise to 66.61 against the US currency due to sustained demand for the dollar from importers.

Among overseas markets, Asian shares slipped for a seventh straight session on Thursday as mixed economic data did nothing to assuage concerns about global growth, keeping sovereign bonds well supported as a hedge against deflation risks.

Back home, HDFC has extended gains and is the top Sensex gainer, up around 4% after the housing finance major reported net profit of Rs 2,607 crore for the quarter ended March (Q4FY16), up 40% year-on-year (y-o-y), which was way ahead of Bloomberg consensus estimate of Rs 2,303 crore.

Tata Motors has rebounded in trades today after witnessing selling pressure yesterday. Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), the company's British luxury car unit, recorded decline in US sales during the month of April 2016.

Sun Pharma was up nearly 2% amid reports that the pharma major is scouting for a partner to market 14 brands it acquired from Novartis in Japan. Among others Lupin was up 1.8%.

Larsen & Toubro Infotech (L&T Infotech),  IT services & solutions companies and a subsidiary of Larsen & Toubro, today announced that it has signed a multi-year contract with Elkjøp Nordic AS to provide end-to-end Infrastructure Management and Datacenter services. Shares of L&T have gained over 1%.

Hero Moto and Eicher Motors are trading higher ahead of Q4 numbers.

On the losing side, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (SEZ) slumped almost 15% in two trading session. The company reported lower than expected EBITDA margin for the quarter ended March 2016.

Nucleus Software Exports has rallied 12% to Rs 224, its highest level since February on the BSE, after the company's consolidated net profit more than doubled to Rs 14.12 crore for the quarter ended March 2016 (Q4FY16) on a sequential basis, due to lower employee cost. The company had profit of Rs 7.01 crore in December 2015 quarter.

Shares of United Breweries (Rs 726), Alstom T&D India (Rs 344) and Ricoh India (Rs 272) have touched their respective 52-week lows on the BSE in intra-day trade in an otherwise firm market.