The Indian equity benchmarks gave up early gains on Friday as gains in index heavyweights like ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Sun Pharma and HDFC twins were offset with losses in Axis Bank, Infosys, ITC, Maruti Suzuki and Wipro. The Sensex rose as much as 382 points and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday high of 17,349. Traders were cautious on the first day of May futures and option series as they keep a watch on forthcoming earnings, analysts said.
As of 9:58 am, the Sensex was up 99 points at 57,620 and Nifty 50 index advanced 26 points to 17,271.
Maruti Suzuki, Wipro, IndusInd Bank and Ultratech Cement will report their March quarter earnings later in the day.
Meanwhile, most of the Asian markets were trading higher taking cues from strong closing on Wall Street. Japan's Nikkei rose 1.75 per cent, Taiwan Weighted advanced 1.2 per cent and South Korea's KOSPI rose 0.9 per cent.
Back home, eleven of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty Healthcare index's 0.7 per cent gain. Nifty Pharma, Auto and PSU Banking shares were also witnessing mild buying interest.
On the other hand, Nifty Oil & Gas, Consumer Durables, Media and Bank indices were trading lower.
Mid- and small-cap shares were trading on a subdued note as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.2 per cent while Nifty Smallcap 100 index fell 0.1 per cent.
Sun Pharma was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 2.2 per cent to Rs 941. HDFC Life, Tata Steel, Dr Reddy's Labs, Mahindra & Mahindra, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Shree Cement, Apollo Hospitals, ICICI Bank and IndusInd Bank also rose between 0.7-1.8 per cent.
On the flipside, Axis Bank fell nearly 5 per cent to Rs 742 after it reported a 54 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 4,118 crore for March quarter. The lender had reported a profit of Rs 2,677 crore in the same quarter last year.
The private lender's net interest income (NII) for the quarter grew 17 per cent Year-on-Year (YoY) to Rs 8,819 crore. It was Rs 7,555 crore in the corresponding quarter of last year.
Adani Ports, SBI Life, Wipro, Power Grid, Coal India, Britannia Industries, Bajaj Auto, Divi's Labs and Asian Paints were also among the losers.
The overall market breadth was positive as 1,629 shares were advancing while 1,309 were declining on the BSE.
