Indian shares pared gains in late afternoon trades on Friday as investors' booked profits in software makers and technology stocks ahead of weekend.
At 2:10PM, the 30-share Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange rose 68.40 points and traded at 20,024.52 while the 50-share Nifty gained 19.15 points at 6,058.20.
Globally, Asian stocks rose for the first time in three days, with the regional benchmark index erasing its weekly loss after economic reports in the world’s two largest economies beat estimates.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.1% to 23,601, Taiwan's Weighted index gained 1.5% to 7,732, Singapore's Straits Times was up 0.5% to 3,211 while China's Shanghai Composite added 1.4% to 2,317 and Japan's Nikkei gained 2.86% to 10,913.
European stocks traded firm. France's CAC gained 0.1% to 3,748, Germany's DAX rose 0.2% to 7,752 while UK's FTSE was up 0.2% to 6,143.
Back home, oil &gas, PSU, real-estate, power, capital goods, banks gained while technology, IT, auto, metals and healthcare indexes dropped on BSE.
Among key Sensex stocks, Wipro tanked 6% while TCS dropped 0.5%, Bharti Airtel declined 1%, Dr Reddy's and SunPharma dropped over 1% , Jindal Steel & Sterlite Industries shed 2% and 1% respectively, HDFC Bank fell nearly 1.5%, Hero MotoCorp dropped 3% while Mahindra & Mahindra was down 2.3% on BSE.
Among gainers, ONGC and GAIL up 7.4% and 2%, Reliance Industries gained 0.3%, SBI and ICICI Bank rose 1% and 1.4%, among autos, Maruti Suzuki and Bajaj Auto gained 4% and 0.3% respectively, Coal India was up 0.7% on BSE.
Wipro, India's third-biggest software exporter, fell on concerns the performance of the company's core IT services segment in third quarter was not as strong as expected.
Bangalore-based soap to IT services major Wipro Ltd reported a net profit of Rs 1,716 crores for the third quarter of FY13 ended on December 31, 2012, registering a y-o-y growth of 18% when compared to the corresponding period last year.
The total revenues of the billionaire Azim Premji promoted company stood at Rs 11,025 crores an increase of 10% when compared to the corresponding quarter last year. The stock is down nearly 5%.
HCL Technologies, country's fourth-biggest software exporter, rose 0.4% after rallying 5% on Thursday after reporting a better-than-expected 9% quarter-on-quarter (qoq) growth in consolidated net profit to Rs 965 crore for the second quarter ended December 31, 2012 (Q2). Revenue rose by 3% sequentially to Rs 6,274 crore during the recently concluded quarter.
The other notable movers includes, ITC that rose 0.6% after diversified group reported a 20.62% rise in its standalone net profit at Rs 2,051.85 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2012 on the back of strong performance in cigarettes, agri and paper businesses.
Hero MotoCorp is down 4% at Rs 1,743. India's largest motorcycle maker missed estimates for the fourth straight quarter on Thursday as net profit fell 20.4% on rising costs and falling sales that battered margins.
Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) rallied after Government partially deregulated diesel prices today. India's three-biggest ONGC surged 8%, OMCs namely Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum Corp and Indian Oil Corp jumped between 7-11% on BSE.
Hindalco has advanced over 1% at Rs 123.50 after the news that the company has acquired Alumina Refinery and Bauxite Mines from Novelis Do Brasil Ltd, a wholly subsidiary of Novalis Inc.
Exide Industries has slipped over 7% to Rs 129 after reporting more than 100 bps year-on-year (yoy) decline in operating margins for the third quarter ended December 2012 (Q3) due to higher raw material cost.
The broader markets were mixed with mid-caps gaining 0.14% and small-caps were a tad down by 0.09% on BSE.
The market breadth was negative. Out of 2,903 stocks traded, 1,480 stocks declined compared to 1,288 gained on BSE.
