 "Markets off day's high; Sensex slips below 28,000")
Benchmark shares indices firmed up in late trades with financial shares leading the gains.
At 3:05pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 360 points at 28,075 and the Nifty was up 128 points at 8,679.
Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and SBI were among the top Sensex gainers along with Reliance Industries, L&T.
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(Updated at 1:05pm)
Benchmark share indices have come off their day's high in late noon trades after financial trimmed early gains while IT exporters weakened ahead of the US jobs data later today.
At 1:45pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 245 points at 27,960 and the Nifty was up 93 points at 8,644. In the broader markets, BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were up over 1% each. Market breadth remained strong with 1723 gainers and 808 losers on the BSE.
Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in equities worth Rs 559 crore on Thursday, as per provisional stock exchange data. Foreign funds have been on a buying spree since the past 20 trading sessions with investments of Rs 13,500 crore.
The Bank of England on Thursday reduced its benchmark interest rate to 0.25% from 0.5%, the lowest in its 322-year history. It expects to cut the rate further in the months ahead.
The India Meteorological Department on Thursday said that monsoon rains during the week from 28 July to 3 August 2016 was above long period average (LPA) by 6%.
Further, reports suggest that the government is likely to table the GST Bill in the parliament on August. The target for the rollout of the GST Bill is scheduled for April 01, 2017.
Gains were led by private lenders ICICI Bank and Axis Bank which rose 2.5%-3.2% each followed by SBI, and HDFC Bank.
Auto shares extended gains as the sector is likely to benefit the most from the implementation of the GST Bill as the effective tax rate is likely to be lower than the current tax of nearly. M&M, Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp, Maruti Suzuki were up 1%-3% each.
Among the index heavyweights Reliance Industries was up over 1% ahead of its foray into the telecom sector with RJio.
Infrastructure stocks also witnessed renewed buying interest with L&T up nearly 2% while BHEL gained 2.5%.
However, IT exporters were trading with marginal losses amid a stronger rupee and ahead of the US jobs data which is likely to signal the strength of the US economy. Infosys, Wipro and TCS were down 0.1%-0.8% each.
