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Shares of IT majors continue to rule firm even as the benchmark indices witnessed choppy trades and profit taking at higher levels capped further gains.
At 1:40PM, the 30-share Sensex was trading 64 points up at 25,625 and the 50-share Nifty was trading up 18 points at 7,658.
The Indian rupee staged a recovery but continued to trade lower at Rs 60.28 against the previous close of Rs 60.18. Earlier, the rupee had dropped to a low of Rs 60.46 to the US dollar after the news of the Malaysian Airlines jet which crashed at the Ukraine-Russian border dampened sentiment.
Asian markets were trading lower as the news of the Malaysian Airlines jet crash continued to dampen investor sentiment. The Nikkei ended registered its highest single-day drop in three weeks to end 1% lower at 15,215.71, Shanghai Composite was trading with marginal gains while Hang Seng was down 0.5% and Straits Times was trading 0.2% lower.
European markets were trading lower as investors turned stayed away from riskier assets over the escalating tensions while the Malaysian Airline jet crash also weighed on market sentiment.The CAC-40, DAX and FTSE were trading 0.2-0.5% lower.
The BSE IT index was the top sectoral gainer up 1.9% followed by Bankex while Realty, Power, Metal and Consumer Durables were among the top losers.
TCS was up 3% after the IT major late Thursday reported a better-than-expected consolidated net profit of Rs 5,058 crore for the quarter ended June 2014 (Q1). Analysts, on an average, had expected profit of Rs 4,885 crore for the quarter. The company had reported a profit of Rs 5,297 crore in the March 2014 quarter. The company's total consolidated revenues were up 2.6% at Rs 22,111 crore in June quarter against Rs 21,551 crore in March quarter, TCS said in a statement. TCS also managed to surprise analysts on its margin. Despite a pay rise of 10% and an appreciating rupee and a one-time impact from depreciation policy, the margin was 26.8%.
Among other IT majors Infosys was up 0.3% and Wipro was up 2.7%.
Other Sensex gainers include, ICICI Bank, L&T and HDFC among others.
Meanwhile, oil shares continued to witness profit taking after crude oil prices rose amid geo-political tensions in Ukraine. Reliance Industries was down 0.5% and ONGC was trading 1% lower.
Oil refiners such as IOC, BPCL and HPCL which import crude oil were down 1.5-3% each.
Metal shares which had surged post encouraging economic data from China also witnessed profit taking. Hindalco and Sesa Sterlite were down 1-2.3% each.
Other Sensex losers include, SBI, Maruti Suzuki and BHEL among others.
Among other shares, Seamec was up nearly 4% at Rs 111 after the company said it has got US $ 15 million order from Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC). The company has been awarded letter of intent (LOI) dated June 23, 2014 by ONGC for deployment of its vessel SEAMEC I for undertaking air diving job for a period of 5 years, Seamec said in a statement.
In the broader markets, the BSE Mid-cap was down 0.5% and the Small-cap index was down 0.2%.
Market breadth was weak with 1,451 losers and 1,280 gainers on the BSE.
