Indian equities surge on fresh buying support

Mumbai, Feb 17: Indian equities markets surged during the mid-afternoon trade session on Friday as healthy buying was witnessed in banking, healthcare, oil and gas stocks.

However, some gains were capped on the back of broadly negative Asian markets and profit booking.

The wider 51-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) edged up by 40.40 points or 0.46 per cent to 8,778 points.

The barometer 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the BSE, which opened at 28,670.43 points, traded at 28,435.73 points (at 1.30 p.m.) -- up 134.46 points, or 0.48 per cent, from the previous close at 28,301.27 points.

The Sensex has so far touched a high of 28,726.26 points and a low of 28,431.61 points during the intra-day trade.

The BSE market breadth was in favour of the bulls -- with 1,415 advances and 1,189 declines.

"The markets continued their upward rally for the second consecutive session, with banking stocks providing support to the upward rally," Astha Jain, Senior Research Analyst at Hem Securities, told IANS.

According to Dhruv Desai, Director and Chief Operating Officer of Tradebulls, the bank Nifty traded with firm sentiments due to buying support.

"IT stocks traded with mixed sentiments due to profit booking, whereas banking, pharma, aviation, media-entertainment, cement and power stocks traded with firm sentiments due to buying support," Desai added.

On Thursday, healthy macro-data and and value buying lifted the benchmark indices.

The NSE Nifty edged up by 53.30 points or 0.61 per cent to close at 8,778 points, and the BSE Sensex was up 145.71 points, or 0.52 per cent at 28,301.27 points.