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Markets edged higher in noon trades, in an otherwise choppy session, on account of buying in beaten down names like ICICI Bank, L&T, M&M and HDFC twins. At 1300 hrs, the Sensex was up 79 points at 26,079 and the Nifty gained 24 points to trade at 7,772.
In the broader markets, the smallcap index was down 0.3% while the midcap index gained 0.2%, almost in line with the BSE benchmark index.
Sectors & Stocks
Among the sectoral indices, IT index down 3% was the top sectoral loser owing to the 8% rout seen in TCS and HCL Tech post lower-than-expected earnings for the quarter ended September 2014 which dented sentiment. However, there was some buying in Infosys and Wipro which gained 0.2-0.5%.
Metals and Realty indices down 0.2% and 0.5% were the only other losers.
Weak growth across Asia and Europe kept the metal names under check. Hindalco, Sesa Sterlite and Jindal Steel slipped 2% each.
Auto major Tata Motors declined 2% as the company reported an 8.2% decline in global sales. Maruti down 1% was the other major loser. Bajaj Auto was flat with a negative bias.
On the other hand, Hero MotoCorp and M&M advanced 1-3%. Hero registered a 59% growth in net profit during the quarter at Rs 763 crore against Rs 481 crore posted in the same quarter last year.
In the Oil & Gas space, Reliance Industries was up 0.2% while GAIL and ONGC was down 1.5% and 0.4% respectively.
From the financial space, ICICI Bank, HDFC twins, SBI and Axis Bank added 1-2%.
Heavyweights from the Capital Goods space like BHEL and L&T were up 1.5-3% and were among the top gainers in Sensex-30.
Global Markets
Asian stocks were on the defensive on Friday, unable to hold early gains as solid U.S. data gave only a temporary boost and failed to dispel underlying worries about slowing world economic growth.
The Nikkei share average led the losses, falling 1.3% on the day and 5.0% on the week, its biggest weekly fall in six months.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dipped 0.2%, on course to log its sixth straight week of losses with a fall of 0.9% so far this week.
