Markets climb in early deals on buying in IT stocks after TCS earnings

Equity benchmark indices rallied in early trade on Friday amid buying in IT stocks after TCS announced its June quarter earnings. The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 226.11 points to 80,123.45 in early trade. The NSE Nifty went up by 82.1 points to 24,398.05.

Among the Sensex pack, Tata Consultancy Services climbed over 2 per cent after the country's largest IT services player reported 8.7 per cent growth in the June quarter net profit at Rs 12,040 crore.

Infosys, Axis Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Finance, Tech Mahindra and HCL Technologies were the other major gainers.

Maruti, Asian Paints, Bharti Airtel and ITC were among the laggards.

"The positive domestic cue is the better-than-expected numbers from TCS and positive management commentary which can lift most IT stocks," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.

In Asian markets, Hong Kong quoted higher while Seoul, Tokyo and Shanghai traded lower.

US markets ended mostly lower on Thursday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.25 per cent to USD 85.59 a barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 1,137.01 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data.

Retreating from early highs, the BSE benchmark closed lower by 27.43 points or 0.03 per cent at 79,897.34 on Thursday. The NSE Nifty edged down 8.50 points or 0.03 per cent to settle at 24,315.95.