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Benchmark indices have extended gains after opening on a higher note led primarily by the gains in select bank and IT stocks along with metal and oil shares.
At 9:34AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 211 points at 29,307 and the 50-share Nifty was up 59 points at 8,864.
In the broader market, both the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices, up 0.5% and 0.4% each are moving largely in-line the front-liners. Market breadth in BSE is positive with 971 advances against 532 declines.
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 390 crore on Friday, as per provisional stock exchange data.
Buzzing Stocks
10 of the 12 sectoral indices of BSE are in green. BSE Realty index, up 1.7%, is the top gainer followed by BSE Metal and Oil and Gas indices, up 0.8% each .
HDFC Bank has gained over 1% on better-than-expected third quarter earnings. HDFC Bank, India’s second largest private sector bank, has reported a 20 per cent growth in net profit in October-December quarter to Rs 2,794.5 crore.
SBI is trading higher by 1.4% and HDFC and ICICI Bank have gained around 0.3% each while Axis Bank is marginally down by 0.1%.
IT shares are trading mixed. TCS and Wipro are trading higher by 0.9% and 0.6% each while Infosys is down 0.6%.
Metal stocks are trading firm in early trades. Sesa Sterlite is up 2%, Hindalco is up 1.5% and Tata Steel is up 1%.
ONGC is trading higher by 0.8% despite its net profit for the third quarter dropping 50 %. The net profit dropped to Rs 3,571.2 crore during the quarter, compared to Rs 7,125.9 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year (2013-14).
RIL is up 0.5%. Stung by lower-than-expected rise in natural gas prices, Canada's Niko Resources has put up for sale its stake in Reliance Industries' KG-D6 gas block, saying there is uncertainty over the long-term price outlook in India. Niko holds 10 per cent stake in the KG-D6 block, where a total of 20 oil & gas discoveries had been made and three out of these are in production.
Sun Pharma has lost nearly 3% after the drug major reported a 6.92% decline in its consolidated net profit at Rs 1,425.07 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2014. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 1,531.09 crore for the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
Global Market
Asian markets were trading marginally higher tracking a rally on Wall Street on Friday even as investors remained cautious over the European Union's debt deal with Greeece this week.
Further, data showed that Japanese economy grew 0.6% in the fourth quarter of 2014, which was lower than market expectations.
The Nikkei was up 0.7% at 18,030 while the Hang Seng was up 0.2% at 24,737 while Straits Times and Shanghai Composite were trading with marginal losses.
US stocks ended higher on Friday on the back of encouraging corporate earnings while stablity in global crude oil prices also improved investor sentiment. Meanwhile, investors will also watch out for fourth quarter earnings from global retail giant Wal-Mart this week.
The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 47 points at 18,019, while the broader S&P 500 gained nearly 9 points at 2,096.99 and Nasdaq ended up 36 points at 4,893.84.
European shares also ended higher on the back of encouraging data from Germany. The German economy rose 0.7% in the fourth quarter of 2014, which was higher-than-expected.
The FTSE 100 ended up 45 points at 6,873.52, DAX also hit a record high to end 44 points higher at 10,963.40 while CAC 40 ended up 33 points at 4,759.36.
