Business: Equity benchmark indices opened flat in early trade on the last trading day of the week. In the opening bell on Friday, the 30-share BSE Sensex registered a marginal gain of 26 points to 85,877. Meanwhile, the Nifty was up by 7.85 points to 26,223. Among the 50 stocks in the Nifty pack, 24 were in the green, while 26 were in the red.

Top gainers and laggards

The top gainers in the Nifty pack included LTI Mindtree (up 2.85%), Tech Mahindra (up 2.75%), Infosys (up 2.65%), Wipro (up 2.40%), and Hindalco (up 2.28%). On the downside, the biggest losers were Power Grid (down 2.18%), Larsen & Toubro (down 1.65%), Bharti Airtel (down 1.57%), ONGC (down 1.32%), and Tata Consumer (down 0.74%).

Nifty IT sees major surge

Among the sectoral indices, Nifty IT saw the highest jump in early trade, rising by 2.65%. Other sectors showing gains included Nifty Metal (up 1.13%), Nifty Pharma (up 0.13%), Nifty PSU Bank (up 0.19%), Nifty Healthcare (up 0.07%), Nifty Consumer Durables (up 0.28%), and Nifty Oil & Gas (up 0.10%).

Meanwhile, indices such as Nifty Midsmall Healthcare (down 0.27%), Nifty Realty (down 1.07%), Nifty Private Bank (down 0.23%), Nifty Media (down 0.41%), Nifty FMCG (down 0.40%), Nifty Financial Services (down 0.37%), Nifty Auto (down 0.16%), and Nifty Bank (down 0.25%) experienced declines.

Rupee against dollar

Meanwhile, Rupee rose 2 paise to 83.64 against the US dollar in early trade on Friday amid softening crude oil prices and inflow of foreign funds. The Indian currency was, however, weighed down by a subdued domestic equity market and a stronger greenback against major rivals overseas amid increased month-end dollar demand from importers, forex traders said. At the interbank foreign exchange, the local unit opened at 83.64 and touched the low of 83.69 before trading again at 83.64 against the American currency, registering a gain of 2 paise from its previous close.