Markets edged marginally higher in the morning session following subdued global cues and profit booking in banking shares. The Nifty was up 23 points, at 5857 and the Sensex surged 107 points, at 5857.
Across Asia, markets were trading mostly higher on Friday morning shrugging of subdued overnight cues from Wall Street. Although US Indices edged marginally lower on Thursday, the markets posted their best quarterly gains in 12 years. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 6.4% in the March quarter.
Elsewhere in Asia, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average was down 11 points after hitting two week high as profit-booking kicked in. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 9 points led by losses in financial shares. South Korea's Kospi Composite was trading flat, up 1 point and Shanghai Composite was up 2 points.
Strong rollovers were seen during the March expiry. Angel Broking in the morning said, Market wide rollover were 81%, rollovers in Nifty futures were at 71% and Bank Nifty futures are 76%. As per provisional data, foreign institutional investors bought shares worth a net Rs 3324.59 crore on Thursday and Domestic institutional investors sold shares worth Rs 1716.85 crore.
High beta BSE Realty shares were leading the gains, up 1% followed by BSE FMCG stocks, up 0.7%. Top gainers from the realty pack were Sunteck Realty, up 2.9%, Indiabulls Real Estate surged 2.2% and Sobha Developers advanced 2%.
From the FMCG space, top gainers were Dabur India, up 1.4%, United Breweries climbed 1.3% and Hindustan Unilever was up 1.2%. Profit booking kicked in banking shares, the index was down 0.5%.
Profit booking kicked in banking shares, the index was down 0.6%. Punjab National Bank was down 2.3%, Indusind Bank and Federal Bank were off 1% each.
Broader markets were trading marginally higher, the midcap and smallcap indices were up 0.4% each.
Top gainers on the Sensex were Reliance Infrastructure, up 2.4%, followed by Reliance Communication, up 2.3% and
Hero Honda, up 1.9%. Top losers on the Sensex were State Bank of India, down 1%, ICICI Bank and Wipro declined 0.8%.
Market breadth was positive, 1067 stocks advanced for 526 stocks which declined.
