Mumbai: Smart gains in IT stocks helped the benchmark Sensex on Friday wash out early losses and end 80 points up at 25,641.56, nearly two-week highs, on good TCS earnings.
The market had initially showed weakness in line with fall in Asian stocks on concerns over geopolitical tension after news that Malaysian airlines Jet downed at the Ukraine-Russia border.
Buying in banking and capital goods also aided the Sensex to rebound and end in the positive terrain, brokers said.
IT shares were in the limelight after country's largest software services exporter TCS announced better-than-expected quarter results late last evening, they added.
TCS was the second top gainer from the Sensex pack with a rise of 2.58 percent. Wipro rose 1.83 percent and Infosys 0.31 percent.
Recently favoured two-tier stocks attracted profit booking by retail investors as their indices, BSE-Smallcap and BSE-Midcap, closed in the red, underperforming the Sensex, traders said.
The BSE 30-share barometer resumed stable and later moved down to a low of 25,441.24 on weak Asian cues.
It afterwards recovered gradually and touched a high of 25,713.40 before finishing at 25,641.56, a net gain of 80.40 points or 0.31 percent. Previously, it had closed at 26,100.08 on July 7.
The gauge has now gained over 634 points in four days. For the week, it has gained 617.21 points.
"The week saw benchmark indices rise by about 3 percent as concerns on crude price eased. Monsoon also progressed during the week, easing worries on inflation. Quarterly results, especially from IT majors, were above estimates and improved sentiments," said Dipen Shah, Head- Private Client Group Research, Kotak Securities.
The 50-issue NSE Nifty rose by 23.45 points, or 0.31 percent, to end at two-week highs of 7,663.90.
Meanwhile, Foreign Portfolio Investors bought shares worth Rs 1,912.42 crore yesterday, as per provisional data.
Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan moved down by 0.07 percent to 1.01 percent while indices in China and Singapore moved up 0.11-0.17 percent.
European stock markets were also trading lower as indices in France, Germany and the UK moved down by 0.30-0.72 percent.
Jignesh Chaudhary, Head of Research, Veracity Broking Services said: "Indian equities opened weak amid Asian markets trading lower after news was out that the Malaysian airlines jet got hit by missile on the Ukraine-Russia border. This dented the confidence of the investors in equity."
Thirteen scrips out of the 30-share Sensex pack ended higher while 17 closed lower.
Other gainers were Hero Motocorp 2.62 percent, Axis Bank 2.10 percent, ICICI Bank 1.97 percent, L&T 1.06 percent, Cipla 0.87 percent and HDFC 0.78 percent.
However, Tata Power fell by 2.58 percent, Hindalco 2.23 percent, BHEL 2.10 percent, Maruti Suzuki 1.70 percent, Gail India 1.69 percent, SBI 1.39 percent and Sesa Sterlite 1.22 percent.
Among the S&P BSE sectoral indices, IT rose 1.43 percent, Teck 0.91 percent and Bankex 0.77 percent while Power fell 1.34 percent, Realty 0.88 percent and Oil&gas 0.77 percent.
Market breadth turned negative as 1,511 stocks ended lower, 1,438 stocks finished higher while 101 ruled steady. The total turnover fell to Rs 3,015.79 crore from 4,519.30 crore yesterday.
