Sensex up 250 points, Nifty near 12,300; IT, banks, pharma stocks gain

Gains in the 30-share BSE benchmark were being led by shares of Infosys, NTPC, Sun Pharma, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finance, Kotak Mahindra Bank and SBI that were trading up in the range of 1-2 per cent each. On the other hand, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank and Titan Company were trading marginally lower.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE MidCap index was up 106.64 points or 0.71 per cent at 15,204.43, while the S&P BSE SmallCap index was at 14,189.69, up 100.57 points or 0.71 per cent.

In percentage terms, the Nifty Metal index was the biggest gainer in the early afternoon session of trade among the sectoral indices on NSE. The index up 1.63 per cent at 2,852.60 levels led by gains in the shares of Coal India (up 4.17 per cent), Welspun Corp (up 3.36 per cent) and Hindustan Zinc (up 3.28 per cent).

Rupee

The rupee was at 71.17 against the US dollar in the afternoon trade, slightly firm from Thursday’s close of 71.21.