Market holds near day's high; IT shares advance

Key equity indices held firm near day's high in mid-morning trade. At 11:20 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 199.48 points or 0.53% at 37,518.01. The Nifty 50 index was up 44.85 points or 0.40% at 11,266.90.

Indices opened higher and hit fresh intraday high in morning trade. Gains were supported by recovery in other global stock markets.

Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.06%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.35%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On BSE, 1174 shares rose and 903 shares fell. A total of 167 shares were unchanged.

IT pivotals advanced. TCS (up 1.32%), Hexaware Technologies (up 1.11%), Infosys (up 0.92%), HCL Technologies (up 0.83%), MindTree (up 0.57%) and Wipro (up 0.19%), edged higher. Tech Mahindra (down 0.24%), Oracle Financial Services Software (down 0.25%), MphasiS (down 0.28%) and Persistent Systems (down 0.38%), edged lower.

Pharmaceutical shares were mixed. Divi's Laboratories (up 1.94%), Aurobindo Pharma (up 1.51%), Wockhardt (up 0.90%), Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (up 0.74%), Dr Reddy's Laboratories (up 0.28%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (up 0.19%) and Cipla (up 0.18%), edged higher. Alkem Laboratories (down 0.09%), Piramal Enterprises (down 0.1%), GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (down 0.23%), Lupin (down 0.3%), IPCA Laboratories (down 0.32%), Cadila Healthcare (down 0.4%) and Strides Shasun (down 1.04%), edged lower.

Meanwhile, the southwest monsoon is likely to make its onset over the Indian coast around 4 June 2019, private weather forecasting agency Skymet said on Tuesday. The 4 June prediction comes with an error margin of two days.

Overseas, Asian shares were mostly higher Wednesday, following a recent slump amid escalating tensions on the US-China trade front.

Growth in China's industrial output for April increased 5.4% year-on-year from a 4-1/2 year high in March.

US stocks advanced on Tuesday, paring heavy losses sparked by a raging US-China trade war over the past week. US President Donald Trump on Tuesday called the escalating dispute with China "a little squabble" but said Washington was still considering extending tariffs to another $300 billion worth of Chinese merchandise.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News