Sensex up over 150 points, Nifty aims 8,550; Tata Motors rises 3%

Markets have extended gains led by strong buying among oil, auto and pharma shares.

At 13:30PM, the 30-share Sensex was up 163 points at 28,139 and the 50-share Nifty was up 46 points at 8,538.

The top gainers on the Sensex are Tata Power, Tata Motors, RIL, GAIL and HUL, all surging between 2-3%.  

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Updated at 12:54

Benchmark indices have remained firm, amid range bound trading, helped primarily by the gains in oil, pharmaceuticals and metal shares while losses in select information technology and index heavyweight stock like ITC have limited gains at higher levels.
 
At 12:54PM, the 30-share Sensex was up 108 points at 28,084 and the 50-share Nifty was up 33 points at 8,525.  

 
In the broader market, both the BSE Midcap index, up 0.6% and Smallcap index, up 1.2% have performed better than the front-liners. Market breadth in BSE is positive with 1,593 advances against 847 declines.    
 
Buzzing Stocks
 
8 out of the 12 sectoral indices of BSE are in green. BSE Oil & Gas index up over 2% each is the top gainer followed by BSE Auto and Metal indices up nearly 1% each.
 
Among index heavyweights, Reliance Industries has gained over 2%.  Morgan Stanley has upgraded Reliance Industries to "overweight" from "underweight", citing confidence about the conglomerate's downstream projects and improving outlook for telecoms business.

 
ONGC has gained around 0.8%. The company has driven a hard bargain to renew its insurance and re-insurance covers, at USD 20 million -- a discount of 35 per cent -- for its offshore assets valued at USD 34 billion from state-run United India Insurance and two global re-insurers.
 
Tata Motors has extended gains from yesterday and is trading higher by nearly 2%. Hero Motcorp has gained 0.7%, Maruti Suzuki has gained 1.6% and M&M has gained around 0.4% among other auto stocks.
 
Capital goods stocks like L&T is trading lower by 0.1% and BHEL is up 0.4%. The construction arm of L&T has won orders worth Rs 2,101 crore across various business segments in March, 2015.

 
SBI has received authorisation from its Executive Committee of the Central Board to divest its stake upto 10% in SBI Life Insurance. The stock is up 0.6%, ICICI Bank has gained 0.7%, Axis Bank has gained 1.2 while HDFC Bank is down 0.4%.  Leading private sector lenders ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank have cut rates by up to 0.25 per cent on high value fixed deposit on select maturities, a move that could be a precursor to lower lending rates.
 
Hopes of enhanced infrastructure spending in China has lifted metal stocks with Sesa Sterlite gaining around 2%, Hindalco up around 1%. However, Tata Steel has shed 0.2%.