Sensex, Nifty Off Day's Highs; Infosys, TCS Top Drags

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes came off intraday highs in noon deals weighed down by weakness in information technology stocks like Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services and Tech Mahindra after rupee gained against the dollar. The Sensex which rose as much as 237 points and Nifty which moved above 11,100 erased most of their intraday gains.

As of 1:43 pm, the Sensex traded 0.2 per cent or 72 points higher at 37,566 and the NSE Nifty 50 index advanced 0.3 per cent or 32 points to 11,090.

Sixteen of 19 sector gauges compiled by BSE were trading higher led by the S&P BSE Utilities index's 2 per cent gain.

Power, metals, capital goods, auto and basic materials sector gauges also rose between 1.6-2 per cent each.

On the flipside, S&P BSE Information Technology index was top loser, down 1.4 per cent.

Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing buying interest as the S&P BSE MidCap Index rose 0.7 per cent and the S&P BSE SmallCap Index climbed 1.3 per cent.

Tata Motors, Britannia Industries, Tata Steel, GAIL, NTPC, Eicher Motors, UptraTech Cement, Power Grid and BPCL were among top gainers in the Nifty 50 basket of shares.

On the other hand, Bharti Airtel, Infosys, Indiabulls Housing Finance, TCS, Tech Mahindra, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Hindustan Unilever were among the laggards.