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Nifty Near All-Time High; Reliance Industries Surges 4%

Gains in the market were led by RIL and Wipro, which rose as much as 2.3% and 7% respectively.
Gains in the market were led by RIL and Wipro, which rose as much as 2.3% and 7% respectively.

The NSE benchmark Nifty gained nearly 50 points to 9,919.85, just 9 points away from its all-time high of 9,928.20 as index heavy-weight Reliance Industries surged as much as 4 per cent ahead of its annual general meeting (AGM). Reliance Industries witnessed strong buying after it reported better-than-expected earnings for the April-June quarter. Sensex advanced over 150 points to 32,062.23 in late morning trade. Gains in the market were led by Reliance Industries, which rose 4 per cent, and Wipro, which surged over 7 per cent on share buyback announcement. Wipro, India's third biggest IT outsourcer, reported a better-than-estimated consolidated net profit of Rs 2,083 crore and announced a share buyback worth up to Rs 11,000 crore at a price of Rs 320, a premium of nearly 19 per cent from Thursday's closing price of Rs 269.15.

However, Wipro's guidance for the September quarter disappointed investors. The Bengaluru-headquartered Wipro said it expects revenue from its core IT services business to be in the range of $1.96 billion to $2 billion for the quarter ending September. That represents a range from a slight fall of 0.5 percent to a 1.5 percent increase over the three months to September 30.

Meanwhile, oil-to-telecoms conglomerate Reliance Industries (RIL) posted a 9 per cent rise in first-quarter standalone profit at Rs 8,196 crore on Thursday, helped by higher margins from its core petrochemicals business. Analysts on average expected RIL to post a standalone profit of Rs 7,993 crore, according to Thomson Reuters data.

As of 10.49 am, Nifty was up 39.10 points or 0.39 per cent at 9,912.40 and the BSE benchmark Sensex traded 140.10 points higher at 32,044.50.

The IT sub-index of NSE, Nifty IT, surged 1.88 per cent as Wipro earnings boosted sentiment for other IT stocks like HCL Tech, which will report its earnings next week. HCL Tech was up 1.62 per cent. (With agency inputs)