By IANS,
Mumbai : Indian equities markets edged up Friday with a benchmark index trading with moderate gains a little before noon. Oil and gas, IT and telecom stocks led gainers.
The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the BSE opened at 16,836.83 points and a little before noon was ruling at 16,971.65 points, up 87.73 points or 0.52 percent from its previous close at 16,883.92 points.
The 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange was also trading higher, 0.46 percent or 23.5 points up at 5,101.35 points.
Broader markets were also ruling marginally higher. The BSE 500 index was ruling 0.31 percent higher. The BSE midcap index was up 0.24 percent, while the BSE small cap index was ruling a similar quantum higher.
The market breadth at the BSE was mixed with 1,202 stocks on the advance, compared to 1,149 declining and 122 remaining unchanged.
Some of the other top gainers on the Sensex at this time were Jindal Steel, TCS, Wipro and RIL, while among losers were DLF, Coal India, Tata Steel and Maruti Suzuki.
Asian markets fell Friday after credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded Spain’s sovereign credit rating, renewing concerns about the extent of Europe’s fiscal woes.
Bourses across the world have managed to gain during the week as investors took hope from various Euro zone countries coming on board to expand the European Financial Stability Facility — a fund which is supposed to be used to ease out countries from the debt crisis.
The Japanese Nikkei was Friday ruling 0.88 percent lower at 8,745.51 points, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was trading 1.02 percent down at 18,566.69 points.
The Chinese Shanghai composite index too was in the red, and was trading 0.84 percent lower at 2,418.28 points.