Sensex fails to maintain initial gains, still up 147 pts

Surrendering over half of its early gains, the BSE benchmark Sensex today rose by 147 points in late morning trade on the back of buying in IT and technology sectors as Infosys posted better-than-expected first quarter earnings.
Infosys jumped over 13 per cent after the company retained its guidance of 6 to 10 per cent growth in revenue in dollar terms for the year ending March 31, 2014, after announcing Q1 June 2013 results before trading hours.
The 30 share index opened higher at 19,898.69 points and moved up further to 19,962.78, but declined afterwards to 19,785.59 before quoting 19,822.74 at 1025 hours.

It still showed a gain of 146.68 points or 0.75 per cent from its last close.
The NSE 50-share barometer Nifty also rose by 26.35 points, or 0.44 per cent, to 5,961.45 at 1025 hours.
Other major gainers were - TCS (2.73 pct), Wipro (2.42 pct), Tata Motors (0.98 pct) and HDFC (0.74 pct).

However, Maruti Suzuki dropped by 2.12 per cent, Cipla 1.33 pct, HDFC 1.17 pct, ITC 1.15 pct and Coal India 1.12 pct.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 638.26 crores, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.
Most Asian stocks fell in their early trade. Key indices in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea fell by 0.38 to 0.6 per cent while indices in Indonesia and Japan rose by 0.1 to 0.13 per cent.

US stocks surged to an all-time high yesterday after the Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said the central bank will keep supporting the economy.