Sensex up over 200 points; Nifty reclaims 8,700

Markets firmed up in late trades with the Sensex rising over 200 points led by pharma and capital goods majors.

At 15:10PM, the Sensex was up 236 points at 28,770 and the 50-share Nifty was up 78 points at 8,706.

Markets continued to trade flat in late noon trades on Thursday as losses in index heavyweights ITC and Reliance Industries capped upside gains.

At 2:15PM, the 30-share Sensex was up 9 points at 28,543 and the 50-share Nifty was up 14 points at 8,641.

On the macro economic front, the government will release index of industrial production (IIP) data for December 2014 and the annual rate of inflation based on the combined consumer price indices (CPI) for urban and rural India in January 2015 today later during the day.

Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors continued to remain sellers in Indian equities with net sale of Rs 371 crore on Wednesday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

The Indian rupee was trading lower at Rs 62.39 to the US dollar compared to the previous close of Rs 62.25.

BSE Metal, FMCG and Bankex were the top sectoral losers while Metal, Power and Auto indices were among the top sectoral gainers.

IT stocks are trading higher. Infosys rose 0.8%. ICA Gruppen, Sweden leading retailer, has partnered with Infosys to revitalize its IT Operations. Wipro was up 0.8% and TCS was trading with marginal gains.

Select Maruti Suzuki has gained nearly 3%, Hero Motocorp has gained 1.5%. Hero Motocorp has introduced a refreshed version of its entry level commuter, the HF Dawn.

Pharma stocks are trading mixed. Cipla and Dr Reddys Lab have gained over 2.5-3.5% each while Sun Pharma is trading lower by 0.6%.

Financials are under pressure in today's session ahead of the release of CPI data. ICICI Bank has declined 0.6%. ICICI Bank has acquired 32 million shares or 15.31% of the total diluted capital of Deccan Chronical Holdings Limited (DCHL), a media firm the bank is in legal tussle with to recover its Rs 490-crore loan, taking its total stake in the company to 24.90%.

SBI has lost 1% and HDFC Bank is trading with marginal losses.

FMCG majors ITC and Hindustan Unilever are down 1% ahead of consumer price inflation data later today.

ONGC has declined over 1%. ONGC and other state-run explorers may have to pay about Rs 10,900 crore in fuel subsidy after Finance Ministry has agreed to provide only Rs 5,085 crore in cash subsidy for the December quarter. RIL has shed over 1% on profit taking.

Among other shares, Fortis Healthcare is trading higher by 2% at Rs 142, extending its previous day’s 20% rally on BSE, after investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala bought nearly one percentage point stake in the company via a bulk deal on Wednesday.

The broader markets continue to outperform benchmark indices, the BSE Mid-cap index was up 0.9% and Small-cap index was up 1%.

Market breadth was strong with 1,489 gainers and 1,175 losers on the BSE.