Markets trim early gains; Nifty holds 8,100

Markets trimmed early gains as investors booked profits at higher levels after sharp gains on Thursdaycame off their day's highs but continued to trade firm led by IT major TCS

Markets trimmed early gains as investors booked profits at higher levels after sharp gains on Thursday. Further, selling by foreign funds also weighed on investor sentiment.

At 9:50AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 28 points at 27,140 and the 50-share Nifty was up 12 points at 8,127.

Foreign funds sold shares worth Rs 9.5 crore on Thursday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

The rupee was trading higher at Rs 60.76 compared to its previous close of Rs 60.84. On Thursday, the Indian rupee ended eight paise higher at 60.84 against the greenback following late dollar selling by exporters and a strong rally in local shares.

Asian shares firmed on the back of encouraging reports on the initial public offering by Chinese e-commerce major Alibaba Group. Shares in Japan were trading higher as the yen weakened against the US dollar. The benchmark Nikkei was up 1.4% at 16,301. The Shanghai Composite and Hang Seng were trading flat with positive bias while Straits Times was up 0.3%.

TCS was the top Sensex gainer up nearly 2% followed by HDFC, Sun Pharma, Bajaj Auto and ONGC among others.

Cipla was up 1.5% after it  signed an agreement with American company Salix Pharmaceuticals, under which Cipla has granted Salix exclusive rights over certain patent applications in the 'Rifaximin Complexes' patents owned by Cipla. The grant is on a worldwide basis, excluding the countries of Asia (other than Japan) and Africa.

Among other shares, Biocon is trading higher by 2.5% at Rs 512, after the biotechnology firm said Silver Leaf Oak acquires 10% stake in Syngene International, the company’s research services subsidiary. Silver Leaf Oak (Mauritius), an investment vehicle advised by India Value Fund Advisors (IVFA), has agreed to acquire a minority 10% stake in Syngene, the research services subsidiary of Biocon, the company said in a statement.

The broader market also trimmed some of the early gains and the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were up 0.6% each.

Market breadth was strong with 1,294 gainers and 654 losers on the BSE.