Markets at mid-day session: Nifty, Sensex trade with minor gains; midcap index hits fresh high

Indian equities amid mixed global cues traded with minor gains in the afternoon session on the last trading day of the week. At the last count, the BSE Sensex was up by 0.12 per cent or 92.81 points at 76,903.71, while Nifty traded with gains of 0.16 per cent or 37.95 points at 23,436.85. Meanwhile, broader markets continued to outperform their headline peers, with Nifty Midcap 100 index up 0.7 per cent, after logging a fresh record high of 55,136.85 for the second straight day today.

With no major triggers in place till the budget, experts expect the market to perform sideways. 

Within the Nifty 50 pack, M&M, Adani Ports, Shriram Finance, Eicher Motors and BPCLwere the top gainers, while laggards were TCS, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, Larsen and Toubro and HCL Tech.

Sectorally, IT and media stocks traded with losses of up to 0.8 per cent, while buying action was seen across all other sectors, with consumer durable and auto stocks leading the gains.

“Since the valuations are high, particularly in the broader market, any significant up move will invite selling from the FIIs. If the market trends down DIIs and retail investors will pursue a buy on dips strategy that has worked very well in this market,” noted Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

According to the provisional data, FIIs in the previous session net sold Indian equities worth Rs 3,033 crore in the cash market.

Tata Motors shares, meanwhile, traded 1 per cent higher at Rs 996.1, after the leading rating agencies such as CRISIL Ratings, ICRA Ratings, and S&P Global Ratings either maintained or raised the bluechip automaker's long-term ratings.

General insurance stocks including ICICI Lombard saw action in Friday’s trade after the release of May premium collection data. At around 2:15 pm, its stock traded over 4 per cent higher at Rs 1737.05.

Endurance Technologies stock also spurted as much as 20 per cent intraday to only retreat later after the company released the investor presentation.

Meanwhile, European markets traded lower, with German DAX and French CAC indices down up to 1.34 per cent. Indian markets will be closed on Monday (June 17) on account of Bakri Id.