Broader market outperforms benchmarks

Metals, Healthcare, Consumer Durables indices top gainers among sectoral indices on BSE

Broader markets continued to outperform the benchmark indices in noon trades on Monday as investors booked profits in index heavyweights after they surged over the weekend tracking strong global cues.

At 12:58PM, the Sensex was up 32 points or 0.2% at 17,782 and the Nifty was up 8 points or 0.1% at 5,366.

The BSE Mid-cap index was up 0.5% while the Small-cap index was up 0.8%.

Asian markets were also trading flat after profit taking was seen at higher levels. Japan's Nikkei ended flat with negative bias while Hang Seng, Shanghai Composite and Straits Times were trading with marginal gains.

European stocks were also trading firm in opening deals with the DAX up 0.7%, CAC-40 up 0.1% and the FTSE-100 up 0.3%.

Among the sectoral indices Metal, Healthcare and Consumer Durables were the top gainers while Bankex, Power and IT were the top losers.

Metal shares were up in the wake of China's plans to invest over $150 in infrastructure. China is the world's largest consumer of metals. Sterlite Ind and Hindalco were among the top gainers.

Tata Steel was up over 2% after Citi upgraded the stock to 'buy' from 'neutral', on the back of attractive valuations, after a 32% underperformance versus the Sensex over the past year. Says the stock deserves a premium to global peers due to its raw material integration leading to steadier earnings. Sees global steel margins improving from 2013 on better volumes, and India earnings to remain stable.

Bharti Airtel was up 2% on reports that the company's mobile tower arm Bharti Infratel is planning an initial public offering to raise Rs 5,000 crore.

In the defensive space, pharma shares witnessed renewed buying interest. Wockhardt, Sun Pharma, Lupin, Ranbaxy Labs were up between 1.3-4.9% each. However, Cipla witnessed profit taking after surging over 3% in the special trading session on Saturday after the Delhi High Court ruled in favour of the Indian pharma company in a patent infringement case filed by  Swiss-based Roche Holding AG over Cipla's cancer drug Erlocip.

Other prominent Sensex gainers include, HDFC, L&T and ONGC up 1-1.2% each.

Among other shares, Balmer Lawrie shares were down 5.6% after the stock was quoting ex-dividend from today. The company paid a dividend of Rs 28 per share.

ARSS Infrastructure Projects was locked upper circuit of 20% at Rs 44.40 after the company said it has entered in to agreements with Corporate Debt Restructuring (CDR) Lenders led by State Bank of India.

The market breadth was positive with 1,453 gainers and 1,093 losers on the BSE.