Indian stock markets advanced in early trade on Friday, helped by gains in auto and consumer durable sector shares.
The 30-share BSE Sensex gained 0.31 percent or 61.11 points to 19,942.41, and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 0.19 percent or 11.35 points to 6,030.70.
Markets opened on a flat note, tracking mixed cues from Asian peers. Asian stock market were trading mixed on Friday as Chinese Shanghai declined 0.29 percent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.39 percent. Japanese Nikkei surged more than 2 percent as the yen continued to decline against the greenback and weak inflation data raised hopes of further monetary stimulus.
Among the 13 sectoral indices in BSE, all sectors were trading in positive territory except realty and metal sectors. Auto and consumer durables sectors gained 0.68 percent and 0.60 percent, respectively, while, metal sector declined 0.16 percent.
Reliance Communications Ltd. (RCom) shares gained 1.69 percent after the Economic Times newspaper reported that Reliance Industries may buy a stake in RCom’s subsidiary Reliance Infratel in a complex deal that also includes leasing as many as 50,000 towers.
Larsen & Toubro Ltd. gained 0.5 percent after the company stock was upgraded to an “outperform” rating from an “underperform” rating at CLSA.
Among the other stocks, Suzlon Energy surged 4.43 percent and Tata Motors gained 2.95 percent while Ranbaxy Labs declined 1.85 percent.
The overall market breadth was negative with 937 advanced against 1092 declines. The BSE's Midcap Index gained 0.26 percent to 6,866.20 and Smallcap Index rose 0.03 percent to 7,072.10. CNX midcap Index gained 0.32 percent and CNX IT rose 0.25 percent.
