The key equity barometers traded with slight gains in early trade. Nifty opened at 23911 and hit a high of 23950 in first half hour of trade. Nifty IT, Nifty Realty and Nifty Financial Services shares rose, while Nifty Consumer Durables and Nifty Pharma shares fell.

At 09:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, posted modest gains of 396.54 points or 0.52% to 76,549.40. The Nifty 50 index edged higher by 41.85 points or 0.18% to 23,915.30.

The broader market performed worse than frontline indices. The BSE 150 MidCap Index added 0.19% and the BSE 250 SmallCap Index moved higher by 0.37%.

The market breadth was encouraging. On the BSE, 2500 shares advanced and 1255 shares retreated. A total of 234 shares were unchanged.

Nifty IT index edged higher by 0.63% to 31032. The index has eased by 2.76% in last one month and retreated 13.07% over last one year. LTM, gaining 2.32%, led the gainers followed by Oracle Fin.Serv., adding 2.25% and Persistent Systems, inching higher 1.51%, respectively. Out of 10 index constituents, 9 are reporting gains today.

Nifty Realty index inched up 0.52% to 921. The index has posted modest gains of 0.34% in last one month and moved higher by 2.98% over last one year. Anant Raj, edging up 1.65%, led the gainers followed by Sobha, up 1.24% and Godrej Propert., adding 1.19%, respectively. Out of 10 index constituents, 8 are reporting gains today.

Nifty Consumer Durables index posted modest losses of 0.43%. The index has posted modest losses of 2.39% in last one month and lost 0.39% over last one year. Havells India, down 3.04%, led the losers followed by Voltas, easing 0.51% and Kajaria Ceramics, losing 0.48%, respectively. Out of 13 index constituents, 6 are reporting loss today.

In NIFTY500, Angel One is the top gainer today, posting strong gains of 5.82% to Rs 302.60. The counter has surged 25.87% in last one year. It recorded an average volume quantity of 530043.67 in last five sessions compared to 382715.29 over last one month.

Asian markets recorded robust advances on Friday. China’s Shanghai composite is marginally higher by 0.35%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is sharply higher by 2.05%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 is higher by 1.10%.