Benchmark indices were firm early Monday, but brokers said investors were cautious about valuations and awaiting some definite triggers before firming up their near term view.

The Sensex up 92 points at 19873 and the Nifty was up 28 points at 6027. With the third quarter earnings season as good as over, the focus once again has shifted to liquidity. Broadly, analysts agree that the worst of earnings estimate downgrades may be behind. At the same time, the majority view is that earnings upgrades will take at least a couple of more quarters to materialize.

Shares of IFCI, Berger Paints, Ashok Leyland, UltraTech Cement and Tata Motors were up 2-4 percent. Auto, banking and realty shares were in demand, while investors ignored shares from the power, healthcare and capital goods sectors. Indian Bank shares were among the big losers in early trade, after reporting a 37 percent drop in net profit for the December quarter. Opto Circuits, Essar Oil, Jet Airways and Ranbaxy were the other key.

LIC holds shares worth about Rs 2.33 lakh crore in all the Nifty companies put together, but it lowered its holding in a total of 27 Nifty companies during the quarter. The cumulative value of LIC holding in these 27 companies fell by little over Rs 8,000 crore during the quarter, shows the analysis of changes in their shareholding patterns.

Individually, LIC is estimated to have sold share markets worth Rs 500-1,000 crore in each of Mahindra & Mahindra, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Tata Motors, L&T, HDFC, Wipro, SBI, Maruti Suzuki, Dr Reddys and Bajaj Auto.

The insurance behemoth also trimmed holdings in Ambuja Cements, Cipla, TCS, Lupin and Asian Paints. A marginal decline was also witnessed in its stakes in companies such as IDFC, Hindustan Unilever, Grasim, ACC, BPCL, Bank of Baroda,

Punjab National Bank, Sun Pharma and Tata Power. On the other hand, LIC further ramped up its stake in a total of 14 Nifty constituents with purchase of shares worth an estimated Rs 4,000 crore.

The major companies where LIC has raised its stake include Infosys, RIL and Cairn India. Other such companies are ITC, Power Grid Corp, NTPC, Siemens, Bharti Airtel and Hero MotoCorp.