Sensex up over 150 points; Nifty reclaims 8,600

Gains were led by index heavyweights Reliance Industries and HDFC along with Sun Pharma

Markets extended gains in late trades led by mortgage lender HDFC and indexheavyweight Reliance Industries.

At 2:25PM, the 30-share Sensex was up 185 points at 28,377 and the 50-share Nifty was up 54 points at 8,604.

HDFC was up 3% contributing the most to the Sensex gains alongwith index heavyweight Reliance Industries and pharma major Sun Pharma.
________________________
(Updated at 1:40PM
Benchmark indices have erased gains in the late noon trades owing to selling pressure in auto, banking and metal stocks as investors turn cautious ahead of the March F&O expiry on Thursday.

At 1.40 PM, the 30-share Sensex is up 1 point at 28,193 and the 50-share Nifty is up 1 points at 8,552.

Hindalco, SBI, Tata Motors, Tata Steel and HUL are the top 5 losers on the Sensex.

_________________________

(updated at 1.40 PM)

Benchmark indices have trimmed some of the gains but are still trading firm as losses in stocks like Tata Motors and SBI have capped the gains of pharmaceuticals and select index heavyweight shares.
 
At 12:53PM, the 30-share Sensex was up 98 points at 28,290 and the 50-share Nifty was up 30 points at 8,579.  
 
In the broader market, both the BSE Midcap index, down 0.1% and Smallcap index, down 0.2% have underperformed the front-liners. Market breadth in BSE is negative with 1,461 declines against 1,062 advances.    
 
Meanwhile, foreign Institutional Investors were net buyers in equities worth Rs 417 crore on Monday, as per provisional stock exchange data.
 
Buzzing Stocks
 
5 out of the 12 sectoral indices of BSE are in red. BSE Consumer Healthcare index up 1.6% is the top gainer followed by BSE Oil & Gas index up around 0.6%. BSE Auto, Bankex and Reality indices have lost around 0.3% each.
 
HDFC twins have gained in today’s session with housing finance major HDFC trading with gains of around 2% and HDFC Bank trading higher by 0.5%.
 
Sun Pharma is up around 2% after the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has given its approval to divest seven brands by Sun Pharmaceutical Industries and Ranbaxy Laboratories to Pune-based Emcure Pharmaceuticals paving the way for the proposed $4-billion merger deal.
 
Dr Reddy's Labs is up over 1% after the company said it has entered into a licencing agreement with Hyderabd-based Hetero Drugs Limited to distribute and market chronic Hepatitis C medicine Sofosbuvir 400 mg under the brand name Resof in India.
 
Cipla's joint venture partner, Stempeutics Research has received Advanced Therapy Medicinal Product (ATMP) classification from European Medicines Agency (EMA) for its novel stem cell drug "Stempeucel." The stock is up 0.6%.
 
From the IT space, Wipro has gained around 1.4%, TCS is up 0.7% and Infosys is trading flat. Wipro has launched an independent business unit called Wipro Digital and is looking at acquiring companies, especially in  North America and Europe, in areas such as 'design competency' and 'process utility' to expand its bouquet of services in the digital space.
 
Bharti Airtel has gained around 3%. According to media reports, Bharti Airtel's joint venture with Vodafone named Firefly Networks is making significant progress towards capturing the largest possible pie of India's fast growing Wifi market.
 
NTPC has gained around 0.5%. The Simhadri Super Thermal Station of NTPC is planning to expand its 2,000 MW power plant at Parawada that comes under Visakhapatnam district in the state of Andhra Pradesh.
 
Among losers, Hero Motocorp, SBI, HUL and Tata Motors have shed more than 1% each. Tata Motors-owned luxury brand Jaguar Land Rover will manufacture the Range Rover Evoque at its Pune facility to support sales growth in the local market.