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Markets extended gains in late morning trades after data showed that trade deficit for December eased significantly year-on-year. Meanwhile, the gains were led by IT majors as Infosys which announced its third quarter earnings before market hours today beat street expectations.
At 11:30AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 136 points at 20,850 and the 50-share Nifty was up 38 points at 6,206.
Trade defict narrowed to $10.14 billion in December 2013 compared with $17.59 billion in the same month last year. Exports in December 2013 increased 3.49% to $26.35 billion
The Indian rupee firmed up against the US dollar up at Rs 61.95 compared to Thursday's close of Rs 62.07. Gains in equities also supported gains in the rupee.
Asian shares eased after lower-than-expected trade data from China signalling that economic growth in the second world's largest economy is struggling. China's December trade surplus trade data stood at $25.6 billion against expectations of just over $31 billion. Further, investors also remained cautious ahead of the US non-farm payrolls data to be released later today. China's Shanghai Composite was down 0.5% and Japan's benchmark Nikkei eased 0.3% amid profit taking after recent gains. However, Hang Seng was up 0.4% while Straits Times was trading flat with positive bias.
The BSE IT index was the top gainer among the sectoral indices up 2.1% followed by Oil & Gas, FMCG, Healthcare and Capital Goods indices among others.
Infosys was the top Sensex gainer up 3.3% after it reported third quarter numbers which were in line with the market's expectations. Infosys grew its revenues in dollar terms by 1.7 per cent compared to the second quarter. The December quarter typically is a weak quarter due to holidays and furloughs. which is why revenue growth has come in below 2 per cent compared to the previous quarter. However, the good news is that bottomline has soared by 21 per cent sequentially to $463 million, on better control on operating costs. Overall, the company continues to show signs of recovery at the operational level.
Among other IT majors, TCS and Wipro were up 1-2% each.
Reliance Industries witnessed shortcovering after the recent correction and was up 1.5%.
Other Sensex gainers include, ITC, HDFC Bank, L&T and Sun Pharma among others.
The broader market was trading firm with BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices up 0.4-0.6% each.
Market breadth was positive with 1,146 gainers and 855 losers on the BSE.
