Sensex up 300 pts; ITC, RIL lead gains

Rate sensitives like banks, capital goods and realty indices up over 1.5%

Markets continue to trade strong with heavyweights like ITC, RIL, L&T and ICICI Bank leading the upmove. The BSE benchmark index was up 302 points at 20,702 and the Nifty advanced 86 points to trade 6,142.

Broader markets continued to remain strong with the midcap index up 1% and the smallcap index gained 0.8%.

Meanwhile, UBS downgraded India to "neutral" from "overweight" and upgraded China to "overweight", saying Plenum reforms will likely cause China to outperform Asia ex-Japan for the next few months.

"We still like India - our thesis of weak capex equals higher return on capital still holds. But it is a longer-term theme and for now we believe a Chinese re-rating is likely to steal the limelight," UBS said in a report.

On the sectoral front, rate sensitives continue to be the top gainers with Bankex, Capital goods and Realty indices gaining 1.6-2.3%.

IT, Oil & Gas, Teck, FMCG and Power indices were the other sectoral gainers, up 1-1.5%.

Coal India, Sesa Sterlite and Tata Motors down 0.2-0.8% were the only scrips in red among the Sensex-30.

ICICI Bank, L&T, HDFC Bank, Wipro and RIL up 2-3% were the top gainers.

ITC, Tata Steel, ONGC, TCS, Bharti Airtel, SBI, Sun Pharma and HDFC up 1.2-1.8% were the other prominent gainers.

Among other stocks, Elder Pharmaceuticals has soared 8% to Rs 317 on reports that French drug maker Sanofi SA is close to acquiring the Mumbai-based pharmaceuticals company.

Amara Raja Batteries rallied 8% to Rs 341, also its 52-week high on BSE after reporting a strong 19% year-on-year growth in net profit at Rs 95 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2013 on back of healthy operational performance.

The market breadth was very positive owing to the strength in the broader markets. 1230 stocks advanced while 526 stocks declined on the BSE.