)
Markets were trading near their day highs led by rate sensitive shares on hopes that May WPI data which is expected around 4.8% could pave the way for a further policy rate cut by the central bank on Monday.
At 11:30AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 219 points at 19,046 after touching an intra-day high of 19,088 and the 50-share Nifty was up 70 points at 5,769 after hitting an intra-day high of 5,780.
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei average jumped nearly 3% on Friday morning, recovering some of the previous session's sharp fall, on the back of weak yen and upbeat economic data from the US. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 1%, Straits Times gained 0.9% while Shanghai Composite rose 0.3%.
Consumer Durables index continues to remain the top sectoral gainer on the BSE up 3% followed by Auto, Oil and Gas, Realty, Capital Goods, Power and Bankex indices.
In the financials space, mortgage lender HDFC was up 2.5%, while HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and SBI were up 0.8-1.6% each.
Tata Motors was the top Sensex gainer up 3.6% after its UK-based subsidiary Jaguar Land Rover Limited (JLR) recorded a strong growth in retail sales in May 2013. JLR has registered a strong retail volume growth of 12.3% year-on-year (YoY) and 13.9% month-on-month (MoM) to 32,477 units in May 2013, which was better-than-expected, driven by continued momentum in the recently launched models. Among other auto stocks, Maruti Suzuki, Hero Honda and Bajaj Auto were up on shortcovering and value buying at lower levels.
Index heavyweight Reliance Industries was up 1.9% on shortcovering and value buying at lower levels after the stock corrected post its AGM. Exploration major ONGC was up 1.4%.
L&T, ITC and Infosys were the other top Sensex gainers.
Among other shares, Tata Coffee has surged 8% to Rs 1,112 after slumping over 25% in the previous two trading sessions on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
The broader markets came off their day highs amid profit taking at higher levels. The BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were up 0.9% each.
The broader market breadth improved further with 1,238 gainers and 667 losers on the BSE.
