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Markets continued to trade firm in late morning trades amid renewed buying interest in defensive shares which had witnesssed profit taking in the recent rally which pushed the markets to record highs.
At 11:35AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 81 points at 21,907 and the 50-share Nifty was up 16 points at 6,528.
The Indian rupee was trading lower at Rs 61.11 compared to previous close of 60.94, tracking losses in other regional equity markets amid worries about China's economic health and following a late fall on Wall Street. Traders expect the pair to range trade between 61-61.50 for today.
Asian markets continued to trade weak amid concerns over drop in prices of industrial metals such as copper and iron in China coupled with weak exports in February raised fears that the world's second largest economy is still in the midst of a slowdown.
Defensive sectors were among the top sectoral gainers on the BSE with FMCG and Healthcare indices up over 1.3% each followed by IT, Consumer Durables and Bankex. Capital Goods and Auto indices were among the top losers.
ITC which had witnessed profit taking recently was up 2.3% contributing the most to the gains on the Sensex while Hindustan Unilever was up 0.3%.
Sun Pharma was the top Sensex gainer up 3.1%. The stock corrected nearly 7% in past four trading sessions on reports that the company has recalled 2,528 bottles of its generic version of diabetes drug Glumetza.
Dr Reddy's Labs was up nearly 1%. Motilal Oswal expects FY16 to be stronger as new launches accelerate. The brokerage has a buy rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 3,180. Cipla was up 0.5%.
Other Sensex gainers include, TCS, Wipro, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank among others.
Among other shares, Vardhman Textiles has moved higher by 4% to Rs 342 after Baring India has bought an additional over 1% stake in the company for total consideration of Rs 25 crore via open market.
In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were up 0.3-0.4% each.
Market breadth was slightly positive with 1175 gainers and 1108 losers on the BSE.
