Sensex, Nifty maintain uptrend; Infosys Q3 nos eyed, HUL up

• Equity benchmarks gained for the second consecutive session today supported by healthcare, banking & Financials, oil & gas, capital goods, select auto and IT stocks. The Sensex rose 168.76 points to 27443.47 and the Nifty climbed 50.95 points to 8285.55.
• Healthcare stocks like Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy's Labs and Cipla topped the buying list, up 2-3 percent. Hindustan Unilever rallied for the fifth consecutive session today, climbing 2.5 percent. The stock gained 10.5 percent in five sessions, especially after brokerages upgraded stock.
• Gold loan companies such as Muthoot Finance and Manappuram gained more than 1.5 percent.  Brigade Enterprises surged 11.5 percent as Motilal Oswal initiated coverage with a buy rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 232, indicating a 50 percent upside to current market price.
• Among the Tata Group shares, TCS was up 1.6% and Tata Motors gained 1.7%. Tata Steel was up over 2% as the stock has received a rating upgrade from a foreign brokerage.
• Other Sensex gainers include, HDFC Bank, Sun Pharma, Reliance Industries, Cipla and ONGC among others.
• The rupee strengthened by 32 paise at over four-week high of 62.35 against the dollar today at the Interbank Foreign Exchange on sustained selling of the US currency by exporters and banks amid higher opening in the domestic equity market.