Market Now: Telecom stocks ring in weak market; Bharti Infra, Tata Comm up 3% each

NEW DELHI: Decent gains in Himachal Futuristic Communications (up 5.88 per cent), Bharti Infratel (up 3.15 per cent) and Tata Communications (up 2.64 per cent) helped BSE Telecom index break the two-session losing streak on Friday.

The BSE Telecom index was trading 1.25 per cent up at 1,391.36 around 10:18 am on Friday, with Bharti Airtel (up 1.09 per cent), Vindhya Telelinks (up 0.46 per cent) and GTL Infrastructure (up 0.29 per cent) as other gainers in that order.

However, telecom stocks such as Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (down 5.79 per cent), OnMobile Global (down 2.80 per cent), Sterlite Technologies (down 2.07 per cent), ITI (down 1.94 per cent), Reliance Communications (down 0.93 per cent), Aksh Optifibre (down 0.58 per cent) and Idea Cellular (down 0.49 per cent) were down in morning trade.

Equity benchmarks Nifty50 and Sensex opened on a cautious note on Friday as investors booked profits amid a weak trend in Asian markets as geopolitical tensions revived after North Korea fired another missile over Japan's northern island.

At 10.30 hours (IST), the Nifty50 index was trading 23 points lower at 10,063, while the 30-share Sensex was down 45 points at 32,197.

Pharma and Bank stocks led among losers.

Power Grid, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, State Bank of India, Sun Pharma, Cipla, Lupin and Dr Reddy's were the major losers in the Sensex kitty.

Oil & Natural Gas Corporation was the top gainer in Sensex, with 3.73 per cent rise.

Other top gainers such as Infosys, Bharti Airtel and Coal India gained 1.25 per cent, 0.95 per cent and 0.76 per cent, respectively.

In the Nifty50 pack, 17 stocks were trading in the green, while 33 stocks were in red.

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