Sensex, Nifty Erase Early Gains; Information Technology Shares Outperform

The Indian equity benchmarks erased early gains on Friday as gains in information technology shares like HCL Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro and Infosys were offset with losses in State Bank of India, HDFC, IndusInd Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and index heavyweight Reliance Industries. The Sensex rose as much as 308 points and Nifty moved above 17,155.

As of 9:30 am, the Sensex was down 105 points at 57,210 and Nifty 50 index declined 49 points to 17,023.

Overnight, the S&P 500 notched a record-high close on Thursday, with oil prices also rising, as investors and traders were optimistic about positive economic data and discounted the impact of the Omicron coronavirus variant on the economy, even as COVID-19 case counts soar.

Stocks rose broadly on the last trading day of the week ahead of a long Christmas weekend in the United States, after data showing consumer spending rose 0.6 per cent last month. The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits held below pre-pandemic levels last week, helping add to the gains, news agency Reuters reported.

Back home, eleven of 19 sector gauges compiled by the BSE were trading higher led by the S&P BSE Information Technology index's over 1 per cent gain. S&P BSE Teck, Telecom, FMCG and Basic Materials indices also rose between 0.3-0.9 per cent.

On the other hand, Realty, Power, Oil & Gas, Bankex and Utilities indices were trading with a negative bias.

Mid- and small-cap shares were trading mixed as S&P BSE MidCap index fell 0.45 per cent while SP BSE SmallCap index was trading on a flat note.

HCL Technologies was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose nearly 3 per cent to Rs 1,261. SBI Life, UltraTech Cement, Tata Consultancy Services, Asian Paints, Infosys, Divi's Labs, Wipro, Dr Reddy's Labs and Tech Mahindra also rose between 0.6-1 per cent each.

On the flipside, IndusInd Bank, Tata Consumer Products, UPL, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, NTPC, ONGC, Mahindra & Mahindra, HDFC, Tata Motors, Bharat Petroleum, Bajaj Finserv and Grasim were among the top losers in the Nifty 50 basket of shares.

The overall market breadth was positive as 1,409 shares were advancing while 1,250 were declining on the BSE.