Sensex gains; FIIs selling weighs, rupee watched

Reuters Market Eye - The Sensex and the Nifty are up around 0.5 percent. Shares in metal companies continue to gain for a second day after a positive reading on China's manufacturing sector on Thursday.

Jindal Steel and Power is up 4.6 percent.

Reliance Industries gains 1.3 percent after the company announced a new gas condensate discovery off the east coast of India in the Cauvery basin with British oil company BP Plc .

Blue chip shares such as ITC fall 0.9 percent on fears of foreign selling unless rupee recovers meaningfully.

Traders continue to remain wary of foreign flows at a time when overseas investors who had been net buyers of Indian stocks in 2013 sold a net 45.41 billion rupees worth of shares in the five sessions through Thursday.

 

(Reporting by Abhishek Vishnoi)