Benchmark equity indices Sensex and Nifty continued to trade higher on Friday after two consecutive sessions of losses, supported by buying in heavyweight IT stocks and a positive trend across global markets.

At 10:30 hours, the 30-share benchmark index was trading at 77278.79 up by 345.2 points or by 0.45 % and then NSE Nifty was at 24165 up by 74.15 points or by 0.31 %.

Sensex touched intraday high of 77357.97 and intraday low of 77043.34 The NSE Nifty touched intraday high of 24188.3 and intraday low of 24106.55

The top gainers of the BSE Sensex pack were HCL Technologies Ltd. (Rs. 1331.50,+3.84%), Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (Rs. 2333.20,+3.61%), Infosys Ltd. (Rs. 1142.95,+3.28%), Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (Rs. 1636.40,+3.20%), Titan Company Ltd. (Rs. 5154.00,+0.95%), among others.

The top losers of the BSE Sensex pack were UltraTech Cement Ltd. (Rs. 11552.05,-1.41%), ICICI Bank Ltd. (Rs. 1430.00,-0.97%), Asian Paints Ltd. (Rs. 2615.40,-0.56%), Bharat Electronics Ltd. (Rs. 408.75,-0.18%), Hindustan Unilever Ltd. (Rs. 2004.30,-0.13%), among others.

_IT index was at 29914.87 up by 900.13 points or by 3.1%. Mastek Ltd. (Rs. 1812.00,+12.37%), GNG Electronics Ltd. (Rs. 620.50,+6.75%), Sagility Ltd. (Rs. 46.23,+6.50%), LTM Ltd. (Rs. 4697.90,+4.98%), 63 Moons Technologies Ltd. (Rs. 782.40,+4.85%),.

Oil&Gas index was at 25994.23 down by -55.47 points or by -0.21%. Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (Rs. 316.65,-0.98%), GAIL (India) Ltd. (Rs. 171.65,-0.92%), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (Rs. 367.60,-0.89%), Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (Rs. 136.70,-0.80%), Adani Total Gas Ltd. (Rs. 641.00,-0.72%),.

The Market breadth, indicating the overall strength of the market, was weak. On BSE out of total shares traded 4010 , shares advanced were 2262 while 1518 shares declined and 230 were unchanged