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Markets were trading flat in noon deals on Friday as gains in ITC and TCS among others helped offset most of the losses in index heavyweights and HDFC Group shares.
At 1:00PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 9 points at 20,949 and the 50-share Nifty was up 2 points at 6,243.
The rupee continued to trade strong in afternoon trades due to dollar sale by banks and exporters. However, domestic equity indices were in the red due to which currency dealers felt foreign institutional investors may start churning their portfolio. This would put pressure on the rupee in later trades.
At 12:45PM the rupee was trading at Rs 61.62 compared with previous close of Rs 61.75 per dollar.
Asian shares were trading mixed as investors remained cautious ahead of the US jobs data due for release today. The Nikkei was up 0.8% and the Hang Seng was up 0.3% while Straits Times and Shanghai Composite were down 0.2-0.4% each.
BSE Bankex was the top loser among the sectoral indices on the BSE.
ITC, TCS, Coal India, Hero MotoCorp, NTPC and ONGC were up 0.5-3% each contributing the most to the Sensex gains.
Financial share which had surged yesterday witnessed profit taking at higher levels. HDFC Bank, HDFC, ICICI Bank were down 0.2-1.2% each.
Among the index heavyweights Infosys was down 0.7% and Reliance Industries was down 0.5%.
Other Sensex loser include, Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever and Hindalco.
The broader markets outperformed the benchmark indices with both the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices up 0.4% each.
Market breadth was marginally positive with 1,142 gainers and 1,041 losers on the BSE.
