Mumbai, July 17 (IANS) Domestic equity markets traded higher in the morning session on Friday, with benchmark indices gaining around half a per cent each despite weak global cues, led by buying in IT and auto stocks.

In early trade, Sensex climbed 363 points or 0.47 per cent to 77,550, while Nifty advanced 100 points or 0.43 per cent to 24,176.

Sectorally, IT stocks led the gains, with the Nifty IT index surging nearly 2 per cent, followed by Nifty Auto, which rose 0.83 per cent, and Nifty Private Bank, which gained 0.42 per cent. The Nifty Oil & Gas and Nifty PSU Bank indices also traded marginally higher.

On the downside, pharma and healthcare stocks emerged as the biggest laggards, with Nifty Pharma declining more than 1 per cent, while Nifty Healthcare Index also slipped around 1 per cent.

Top losers of the Nifty were Wipro, Hindalco Industries, Cipla, Eternal, Nestle India, Max Healthcare, Sun Pharma, ITC, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories and Tata Consumer Products.

Analysts said the market is likely to remain range-bound as a weakening rupee, persistent foreign institutional investor (FII) selling and weak global cues continue to weigh on sentiment.

However, they noted that resilient technical indicators, steady domestic institutional buying and strong support around the 24,000-24,100 zone are expected to limit the downside.

They added that investors will closely watch the June-quarter earnings of major private banks for fresh direction, while maintaining a stock-specific and buy-on-dips approach until a decisive breakout emerges.

On the commodities front, Brent crude — the international benchmark — rose 1.48 per cent in early trade to $85.48 per barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude climbed 1.60 per cent to $80 per barrel.

Asian markets traded lower, with Japan’s Nikkei falling more than 4 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declining around 2 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite shedding over 1 per cent.

Overnight, US markets ended in the red, with S&P 500 slipping 0.51 per cent and the Nasdaq falling 1.47 per cent.

–IANS

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