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Markets remained firm in noon trades on Wednesday led by capital goods and software shares after global rating agency said that India's GDP growth could climb to 6.4% in 2013-14 and further increase to 7.2% in 2014-15.
At 1PM, the 30-share Sensex was up 116 points at 19,260 and the 50-share Nifty was up 34 points at 5,819.
Asian stocks continued to trade firm tracking sharp gains on Wall Street on Tuesday. The Nikkei ended up 2.1% while the Shanghai Composite was up 0.9%, Hang Seng gained 0.9% and the Straits Times was up 1.1%.
Realty Index led the sectoral indices on the BSE up 4.7% followed by Capital Goods, Metal and IT indices.
Engineering major L&T was the top Sensex gainer weightage wise up nearly 3% at Rs 1,435 after Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to "buy" from "neutral". Goldman cited cheaper valuations after L&T's recent under-performance against the broader index and the prospect of stable revenue growth over the medium term. BHEL was up 1.7% at Rs 202.
In the software space, Infosys was up 1.4%, TCS gained 0.7% and Wipro was up 1.5%.
Metal shares rebounded after the sharp correction on Monday amid concerns over rising inventory levels on the back of poor offtake and slowdown in exports in the wake of falling demand from China. Sterlite was up 4.6%, Tata Steel rose 2.5%, Hindalco was up 2.5% and Jindal Steel firmed up 0.5%.
Index heavyweight Reliance Ind was up 0.9% at Rs 833.
ITC was down nearly 1% amid profit booking after recent gains. It may be recalled that the excise duty on cigarettes was hiked by 18% in the Budget.
The broader market also witnessed buying. The BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were up over 1.2% each.
Market breadth continued to remain positive with 1,613 gainers and 916 losers on the BSE.
