The key equity barometers traded with modest gains in early trade. Nifty opened at 23035 and hit a high of 23104 in first half hour of trade. Nifty Auto, Nifty Metal and Nifty Realty shares advanced, while Nifty IT and Nifty Chemicals shares declined.

At 09:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, up 61.35 points to 73,641.89. The Nifty 50 index up 20 points to 23,083.10.

The broader market underperformed the frontline indices. The BSE 150 MidCap Index lost 0.14% and the BSE 250 SmallCap Index edged higher by 0.20%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1955 shares rose and 1816 shares retreated. A total of 209 shares were unchanged.

Nifty Auto index moved higher by 0.38% to 26832. The index has lost 8.15% in last one month and inched down 1.03% over last one year. Hero Motocorp, edging up 1.23%, led the gainers followed by Sona BLW Precis., adding 1.05% and M & M, gaining 0.90%, respectively. Out of 15 index constituents, 14 are reporting gains today.

Nifty Metal index added 0.36% to 13089. The index has posted modest losses of 2.54% in last one month and spiked 29.64% over last one year. Welspun Corp, rising 5.02%, led the gainers followed by Hindustan Zinc, up 1.11% and Natl. Aluminium, inching higher 0.41%, respectively. Out of 15 index constituents, 8 are reporting gains today.

Nifty IT index fell 1.25%. The index has fallen 7.80% in last one month and recorded sharp losses of 19.39% over last one year. Oracle Fin.Serv., losing 2.74%, led the losers followed by Mphasis, slipping 1.16% and Infosys, down 0.85%, respectively. Out of 10 index constituents, 9 are reporting loss today.

In NIFTY500, Welspun Corp is the top gainer today, surging 5.02% to Rs 2829.95. The counter has posted strong gains of 206.04% in last one year. It recorded an average volume quantity of 114394.33 in last five sessions compared to 153280.70 over last one month.

Asian markets plunged on Friday. China’s Shanghai composite is firmly lower by 1.22%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is substantially lower by 1.89%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 is trading higher by 1.15%.