IT shares trade firm; HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra up 3%

At 1311 hours, CNX IT index was up 1.8% compared to less than 1% gain in the benchmark CNX Nifty.

Shares of information technologies (IT) companies were trading firm on the bourses, gaining upto 4% each, on the back of positive corporate announcements and weakening rupee.

HCL Technologies, Tech Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Persistent Systems and Cyient rose 3%-4% each, while Infosys, Wipro, Hexaware Technologies, Polaris Consulting & Services and MindTree gained 1%-2% each on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

At 1311 hours, CNX IT index was the largest gainer among sectoral indices, gaining 1.8% compared to sub-1% gain in the benchmark CNX Nifty.

Tech Mahindra spurted by 3% to Rs 640 after the company said Ontario Ministry of Energy and the company invested in innovative Smart Grid solution powered by analytics.

Tech Mahindra announced that it will build an Intelligent Electric Vehicle Charging System (IEVCS) designed to help build Ontario's clean energy future. The project, sponsored by the Ministry of Energy and funded in part through the Ontario Smart Grid Fund initiative, will analyze the effects of electric vehicle charging on transformers by creating a real-time transformer monitoring and analytics solution.

TCS gained 2% at Rs 2,563 after its client, Euroclear Finland launched platform, Infinity powered by TCS BaNCS for market infrastructure.

Infinity is a multi-year program powered by TCS BaNCS for Market Infrastructure and is a key component of Euroclear Finland's outsourcing its securities settlement processing to TARGET2Securities (T2S) as part of the European Central Bank's fourth migration wave in February 2017, TCS said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the rupee depreciated by 11 paise to 63.78 against the US dollar at the Interbank Foreign Exchange in early trade today as the American currency appreciated in wake of strong economic data, the PTI report suggests. CLICK HERE TO READ REPORT.