Markets gain on firm global cues; Infosys up 1%

Markets opened marginally higher tracking gains in their Asian peers and overnight gains on Wall Street with IT majors leading the gains.

Meanwhile, markets are likely to remain volatile ahead of the release of consumer price inflation and industrial production data due later today.

At 9:30AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 28 points at 27,630 and the 50-share Nifty was up 12 points at 8,306 .

On the economic front, progress on the Centre's proposed goods and services tax (GST) slowed further on Thursday as the states turned down the government's revised draft on a Constitution amendment Bill in this regard.

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net sellers in Indian equities worth Rs 808.27 crore and also sold derivatives worth Rs 1,335 crore on Thursday, stock exchange data showed.

Japanese markets have gained on fall in yen and rebound in US markets. Nikkei has gained more than 1%. Chinese stocks have gained ahead of the release of retail sales data as any weakness in the figures is likely to bring about a stimulus dose by Chinese authorities. Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite indices have gained 0.5% and 0.9% each.

Overnight, US markets closed higher after three consecutive sessions of ending lower. Positive retail sales data boosted sentiments. Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.3% while S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indices closed with gains of 0.4% and 0.5% each.

The BSE IT index was the top sectoral gainer up 1% followed by Capital Goods, Healthcare, Bankex, Oil and Gas index among others.

TCS was up 1% on reports that the information-technology services player is undergoing a restructuring exercise. The workforce optimisation programme, in the planning stage, is expected to be over in February 2015, according to media reports.

Infosys bounced back on short covering after the correction on Thursday and was up over 1.5% while Wipro was up 0.7%.

Oil shares which had witnessed profit taking on the back of declining global crude prices also firmed up on value buying at lower levels with both Reliance Industries and ONGC up 0.3-0.6% each.

SBI, Axis Bank and Bharti Airtel were among the other Sensex gainers.

SBI, Axis Bank and Bharti Airtel were among the other Sensex gainers.

ITC was the top Sensex loser down 0.7% along with M&M, Gail and ICICI Bank among others.

Among other shares, OnMobile Global is locked in upper circuit of 5% at Rs 72.60 on BSE after the company said its board approved the buyback of equity shares of the company at a price not exceeding Rs 86 per share.

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were up 0.6-0.7% each.

Market breadth was positive with 1,009 gainers and 351 losers on the BSE.