Sensex recovers 170 points from day's lows; Infosys up 0.6%

Markets trimmed losses in late noon trades helped by a rebound in index heavyweights

Markets trimmed losses in late noon trades on Friday and were trading flat helped by a rebound in index heavyweights. However, weakness in Larsen & Toubro capped further gains.

At 2:25PM, the 30-share Sensex was up 1 point at 25,824 after hitting a low of 25,659 and the 50-share Nifty was down 4 points at 7,711.

The Indian rupee came off its highs and was trading unchanged at Rs 59.73 after the Reserve Bank of India stepped up dollar purchases while subdued domestic stock market also weighed on sentiment.

Asian markets witnessed profit taking after hitting three-year high on Friday on the back of encouraging economic data from the US signalling an uptick in the world's largest economy. Japan's Nikkei ended up 0.6% at 15,437. Among other shares in the region, Shanghai COmposite was down 0.2%, Hang Seng gained 0.1% and Straits Times was up 0.1%

BSE Metal index was the top loser down 1.2% followed by Capital Goods, Power and Bankex. Healthcare, Realty, IT and FMCG were among the sectoral gainers.

Among the index heavyweights, Infosys was up 0.7%, Reliance Ind was up 0.4%, ITC was up 0.4% contributing the most to the Sensex gains.

In the defensive pack, pharma shares also rallied on renewed buying interest. Dr Reddy's Labs was up 1.3% and Sun Pharma was trading with marginal gains.

Larsen & Toubro was trading 1.1% lower contributing the most to the Sensex decline. TCS, Wipro, Sesa Sterlite which had gained in the previous sessions witnessed profit taking and were trading marginally lower.

In the financial pack, SBI, HDFC and ICICI Bank were down 0.4-0.6% each.

Among other shares, Amtek Auto has dipped 5% to Rs 239 after Citigroup sold over two million shares worth Rs 53 crore of the company through open market. On July 3, 2014 Citigroup Global Markets Mauritius Private Limited has sold 2.07 million shares representing 0.95% of total equity of Amtek Auto at a price of Rs 255.93 per share on NSE, the bulk deal data shows.

Jain Irrigation Systems has moved higher by 4% to Rs 126 after the company said it has been issued a Letter of Intent (LoI) for project by Himachal Pradesh (HP) government involving an outlay of approximately Rs 100 crore.