Markets trade higher as IT shares gain

Consumer durables index bucks trend; Broader markets gain in line with benchmarkl

Markets have recovered from the day's lows and is now up half a per cent each. The Sensex is up 92 points at 19,611. Nifty is up 28 points at 5,949.

A Labor Department report today is expected to indicate employers added 163,000 to non-farm payrolls last month, almost equal to the gain in April, Bloomberg report suggested.

Asian shares traded lower with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declining 1% to 21,622, China’s Shanghai Composite declined 0.04% to 2,233, Singapore’s Straits Times fell 0.2% to 3,187 while Japan’s Nikkei slumped 1.3% to 12,732 today.

Meanwhile, rupee continued to remain weak in today’s trading session after touching a one-year low of 57 to the dollar on Thursday. The currency traded at Rs 56.77/$ as against yesterday’s close 56.84.

Broader markets advanced in line with the benchmark. BSE mid-cap index added 0.5% at 6458 while the small-cap index was up 0.7% at 6,009.

From the sectoral pack, all indices, barring consumer durables, were in green. BSE IT index surged 1.5% at 6,136. Realty, Healthcare and oil & gas indices added 0.5-1% each.

Dr Reddy's has added 2.5% at Rs 2,187. TCS, Infosys and Wipro were the other key gainers - up 1-2.5% each. Among other gainers are SBI, Hero MotoCorp, Reliance and Larsen & Toubro.

Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Jio Infocomm has signed a Rs 12,000-crore tower sharing deal with Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Communications (RCom). While RIL is up 1%, RCom has slipped 0.5% at Rs 117.

Maruti Suzuki India has slipped by nearly 3% in early morning trade amid a one day production shut-down at its two plants at Gurgaon and Manesar today ahead of a six-day scheduled maintenance closure later this month.