Markets climb in early trade; turn volatile later

Mumbai: Benchmark indices bounced back in early trade on Friday, after falling in the past two days, helped by continuous buying from foreign institutional investors amid mixed trends in global markets.

The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 153 points to 60,989.41 in early trade. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty advanced 55.3 points to 18,108.

Later, both the benchmark indices turned choppy and were trading flat. The 30-share BSE benchmark was trading 27.58 points lower at 60,808.83. The Nifty quoted marginally lower by 7.35 points at 18,045.35.

From the Sensex pack, Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Steel, Axis Bank, Larsen & Toubro, State Bank of India and UltraTech Cement were among the early winners.

Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Dr Reddy's, HCL Technologies, Tech Mahindra and Hindustan Unilever Limited were among the laggards.

Elsewhere in Asia, markets in Seoul and Tokyo were trading lower, while Shanghai and Hong Kong quoted in the green.

Wall Street had ended lower on Thursday.

"There are two broad trends, one negative and the other positive, in the market now. The negative trend is the rising interest rates globally.

"But even in this unfavourable environment FII flows into India are rising. This vote of confidence in India is a clear positive," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

The BSE benchmark declined 69.68 points or 0.11 per cent to settle at 60,836.41 on Thursday. The Nifty dipped 30.15 points or 0.17 per cent to end at 18,052.70.

International oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.81 per cent higher at USD 95.44 per barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net buyers on Thursday as they bought shares worth Rs 677.62 crore, as per exchange data.