The Indian equity benchmarks moved higher on Friday led by on the back of a broad-based buying interest amid positive cues from global markets. The Sensex rose as much as 374 points and Nifty 50 index was trading above its important psychological level of 17,950. Asian share prices advanced on Friday as a shock from a surprisingly strong U.S. inflation reading ebbed, with investors now hopeful that the worst price hikes could be soon over. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.7 per cent to reach its highest level in two weeks while Japan's Nikkei gained 1.1 per cent, helped by brisk earnings.
As of 9:22 am, the Sensex was up 278 points at 60,197 and Nifty 50 index advanced 88 points to 17,961.
US stock futures were up about 0.3 per cent after a mixed session on Thursday when the S&P 500 ended 0.06 per cent higher while tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 0.52 per cent.
Back home, buying was visible across the board as all the 19 sector gauges compiled by the BSE were trading higher led by the S&P BSE Metal index's over 1 per cent gain. Realty, Information Technology, Consumer Durables, Telecom, Industrials, Consumer Discretionary Goods & Services and Basic Materials indices also rose between 0.7-1 per cent.
Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.5 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.24 per cent.
Tata Steel rose as much as 3.1 per cent to hit an intraday high of Rs 1,340 after its net profit jumped eight times to Rs 11,918 crore in September quarter.
Hindalco was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 2.54 per cent to Rs 465. HDFC Life, Tech Mahindra, Tata Consumer Products, Nestle India, Wipro, Bharti Airtel, Adani Ports, Bajaj Finserv, Titan and Infosys were also among the gainers.
On the flipside, Bajaj Auto, Tata Motors, NTPC, Hero MotoCorp, Divi's Labs, IndusInd Bank and State Bank of India were among the notable losers.
The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 1,711 shares were advancing while 994 were declining on the BSE.
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