IT shares were witnessing buying interest on the back of expectations of strong December quarter earnings which will begin from tomorrow, analysts said.
The Indian equity benchmarks came off intraday low levels in noon deals on the back of buying interest in information technology heavyweights like Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro and Infosys a day ahead of their earnings. Reliance Industries, HDFC, State Bank of India and Axis Bank also added to the gains during the session. The Sensex rose as much as 367 points from day's lowest level and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday high of 18,059 after hitting low of 17,964.
As of 1:17 pm, the Sensex advanced 246 points to 60,643 and Nifty 50 index gained 63 points to 18,066.
IT shares were witnessing buying interest on the back of expectations of strong December quarter earnings which will begin from tomorrow, analysts said.
Among the individual shares, Vodafone Idea fell as much as 19 per cent after the debt-ridden firm announced converting about Rs 16,000 crore interest dues liability payable to the government into equity.
Meanwhile, buying was visible across the board as thirteen of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty IT index's nearly 1 per cent gain. Nifty Realty, Media, Financial Services and Bank indexes also rose between 0.3-1 per cent.
Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing buying interest at Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indices rose 0.5 per cent each.
HCL Technologies was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 4 per cent to Rs 1,340. HDFC, Grasim Industries, Divi's Labs, Reliance Industries, NTPC, Tata Consumer Products and Larsen & Toubro also rose between 0.6-1.5 per cent.
On the flipside, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Bharat Petroleum, Coal India, Asian Paints, Bharti Airtel, Indian Oil, HDFC Life, Bajaj Finance and Hindalco were among the losers.
The overall market breadth was positive as 2,116 shares were advancing while 1,267 were declining on the BSE.