Indian benchmarks continued to trade higher during the noon trading session, as investors assessed rising oil prices amid escalating Iran-US tensions, amid bargain buying opportunities. Among sectors the Nifty IT index declined 0.74 per cent, followed by the Nifty Media index. Conversely, the Nifty PSU Bank and Metal index rose 1 per cent.
Overseas, European stocks are seen opening on a positive note Friday despite rising U.S.-Iran tensions and lingering uncertainty about the outlook for interest rates.
Meanwhile, Gold headed for a weekly loss as the dollar surged to a near one-month high ahead of key U.S. economic data that could help shape Fed rate cut expectations.
At 12:35 hours, the 30-share benchmark index was trading at 83057.59 up by 559.45 points or by 0.68 % and then NSE Nifty was at 25648.1 up by 193.75 points or by 0.76 %.
The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 83132.08 and intraday low of 82206.21 The NSE Nifty touched intraday high of 25651.55 and intraday low of 25379.75.
The top gainers of the BSE Sensex pack were Larsen & Toubro Ltd. (Rs. 4375.00,+2.25%), Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. (Rs. 301.20,+2.22%), NTPC Ltd. (Rs. 371.20,+2.22%), Hindustan Unilever Ltd. (Rs. 2324.60,+1.98%), Bharat Electronics Ltd. (Rs. 444.15,+1.97%), among others.
The top losers of the BSE Sensex pack were Infosys Ltd. (Rs. 1356.85,-0.93%), Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (Rs. 1470.65,-0.70%), Kwality Wall's (India) Ltd. (Rs. 28.55,-0.66%), Eternal Ltd. (Rs. 270.80,-0.42%), Bharti Airtel Ltd. (Rs. 1984.80,-0.28%), among others.
Among the sectors, CGS index was at 69843.14 up by 1264.79 points or by 1.84%. ABB India Ltd. (Rs. 6188.15,+8.27%), Siemens Ltd. (Rs. 3270.00,+5.14%), Data Patterns (India) Ltd. (Rs. 3041.00,+4.51%), Apar Industries Ltd. (Rs. 10528.15,+4.50%), Hitachi Energy India Ltd. (Rs. 23777.55,+4.12%),.
On the flip side, BSETECk index was at 16371.89 down by -98.65 points or by -0.6%. Persistent Systems Ltd. (Rs. 5097.95,-3.28%), LTIMindtree Ltd. (Rs. 4874.10,-1.81%), Tejas Networks Ltd. (Rs. 327.00,-1.12%), Infosys Ltd. (Rs. 1355.70,-1.01%), Coforge Ltd. (Rs. 1347.30,-0.97%),.
The Market breadth, indicating the overall strength of the market, was weak. On BSE out of total shares traded 4275 , shares advanced were 2108 while 1943 shares declined and 224 were unchanged.