Sensex, Nifty maintain uptrend; Pipavav Defence most active

Moneycontrol Bureau12:45 pm Buzzing: Shares of Tata Power gained 3.2 percent intraday on signing memorandum of understanding with Russian government for investment in energy sector.

"Tata Power, on December 24, signed a memorandum of understanding with ministry of development of Russian Far East, Government of Russian Federation, to explore and develop investment opportunities in energy sector," says the Tata Group company.

As per this MoU, Russian government will cooperate with and support Tata Power at all stages of investment projects, including assisting company's communications with federal and regional authorities, state-owned companies and private sector.

12:20 pm Asia Update: Asian equities closed mixed on the first day of the final trading week for 2015, with the Japanese market advancing, while the South Korean Kospi fell 1 percent.

Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy and chief economist at AMP Capital, said in a note last week that shares will likely see their "traditional Santa Claus rally over the Christmas/New Year period as investors take advantage of improved valuations, monetary conditions remain easy and new issuance dries up into year end."

However, Oliver warned about the Federal Reserve and a strong dollar "possibly weighing on commodity prices and emerging countries may mean that volatility will remain high."Also read - Asia M&A hits record, deals top $1 trillion in 201512:00 pm Market Check

Bulls have retained their control over Dalal Street today as equity benchmarks continued to hold morning gains, aided by healthcare, technology, pharma, IT and select banks stocks.

The Sensex surged 144.29 points or 0.56 percent to 25983 and the Nifty rose 45.50 points or 0.58 percent to 7906.55. The broader markets also maintained uptrend with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rising 0.3-0.6 percent supported by positive market breadth.

About 1540 shares have advanced on the BSE against 859 declining shares.

Force Motors, Pipavav Defence, Dr Lal PathLabs, SpiceJet, TCS, Alkem Lab and Reliance Infrastructure were the most active shares on exchanges.