The key indices were confined in a range in early afternoon trade. At 12:24 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 238.52 points or 0.69% at 34,952.12. The Nifty 50 index was up 71.50 points or 0.67% at 10,689.30. The indices opened higher and firmed up in morning trade. Indices, however, came off day's high and were trading in a narrow range since mid-morning trade.
The Sensex pared gains after hitting the psychologically important 35,000 mark in morning trade. The undertone of the market was positive amid encouraging Q4 earnings so far and positive global cues. Continuous buying by domestic institutional investors also boosted sentiment.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong . On BSE, 1437 shares rose and 944 shares fell. A total of 126 shares were unchanged.
The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.65%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.62%. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.
IT shares declined. Tech Mahindra (down 2.81%), HCL Technologies (down 2.76%), MphasiS (down 1.91%), MindTree (down 1.73%), Wipro (down 1.67%), TCS (down 1.66%), Persistent Systems (down 1.43%) and Hexaware Technologies (down 1.18%), edged lower. Infosys (up 0.39%) and Oracle Financial Services Software (up 2.08%), edged higher.
Most pharma shares rose. Wockhardt (up 2.36%), Piramal Enterprises (up 2.28%), IPCA Laboratories (up 2.17%), Dr Reddy's Laboratories (up 1.13%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (up 1.12%), Divi's Laboratories (up 0.84%), Aurobindo Pharma (up 0.67%), Lupin (up 0.60%), Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (up 0.38%), Cadila Healthcare (up 0.10%) and Cipla (up 0.04%), edged higher. Alkem Laboratories (down 0.06%), Strides Shasun (down 0.12%) and GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (down 0.18%), edged lower.
Overseas, Asian shares rose after US equities were buoyed by solid earnings results and a rebound in technology stocks as US bond yields pulled back. Meanwhile, Euro was hovering near three-month lows after the European Central Bank kept interest rates unchanged.
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