)
Benchmark share indices surged in late noon trades on Friday, amid firm European cues, as sharp gains in financials helped offset losses in IT majors.
At 2:45PM, the 30-share Sensex was up 206 points at 26,205 and the 50-share Nifty was up 58 points at 7,806.
Foreign investors were net sellers in Indian equities to the tune of Rs 1,128 crore on Thursday.
The Indian rupee firmed up against the US dollar and was trading higher at Rs 61.48 compared to the previous close of Rs 61.83 tracking gains in Asian currencies. Asian currencies edged higher encouraging US data on unemployment benefits and industrial output.
Asian markets which had edged higher early today on the back of robust US economic data trimmed gains with shares in Japan witnessing a sell-off. The benchmark Nikkei ended down 1.3% on the day and 5.0% for the week, its biggest weekly fall in six months. Chinese shares were trading 0.7% lower while shares in Hong Kong were trading 0.5% higher and Straits Times gained 0.4%.
BSE Bankex was the top gainer among the sectoral indices up 2.5% followed by Consumer Durables, Auto, Power and FMCG among others. Meanwhile, IT index continues to be the top loser down 3.8%.
Financial stocks witnessed renewed buying interest at lower levels. HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC, SBI and Axis Bank were up 2-3% each.
Reliance Industries was trading 0.6% higher after the recent correction post its second quarter earnings.
Bharti Airtel was up 2.4% after it added 10.22 lakh users in September 2014 to take its subscriber base to 21.15 crore. It had a market share of 27.98% at the end of September.
Tata Steel which had dropped nearly 4% in the previous session on proposed sale of its long products business in Europe rebounded today to edge 2.4% higher.
Other Sensex gainers include, L&T, M&M, and ITC among others.
TCS slumped 8% after it disappointed the street with lower-than-expected earnings. The IT major reported nearly 6% drop in net profit at Rs 5,244 crore for the second quarter ended September 2014 compared with Rs 5,568 crore in the first quarter ended June 2014. Infosys and Wipro were also down 0.1-1% each.
HCL Tech also plunged 9% after it reported a lower than expected 2.1% sequential growth in net profit to Rs 1,873 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2014.
The net profit of the country's fourth largest software services firm also suffered due to salary hikes given in the last quarter.
Among other shares, Zee Entertainment Enterprises has moved higher by over 5% to Rs 330, its highest level since May 2000 on BSE, ahead of its July-September quarter (Q2) earnings today.
In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap index was up 0.6% and the Small-cap index was up 0.1%.
Market breadth was tad weak with 1,365 losers and 1,330 gainers on the BSE.
