Sensex ends with modest gains; TCS surges 6 per cent

The benchmark Nifty consolidated for the third consecutive day and closed with modest gains on Friday, led by technology, telecom, realty, select oil & gas and financial companies' shares.

However, the sell-off in Reliance Industries, HDFC, HDFC Bank, GAIL, ITC, M&M, Reliance Power, Ambuja Cements, Siemens, Sun Pharma, Tata Power and Power Grid along with metal companies' shares capped the gain to some extent.

The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 17,955.82, up 46.36 points and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 15.15 points to 5,393.90. Even European markets were quite supportive; CAC, DAX and FTSE were trading 0.5-0.9% higher, at the time of closing of Indian equities. 

Portfolio Manager, PN Vijay said the upside break out was quite possible, given the fact that market is showing strength and refusing to fall below 5,300 on the Nifty. "The volatility has come down dramatically. For example, we got a 5300 call quoting around 125, which indicates that the volatility is almost zero, which explains low trading volumes."

TCS surged 6.6%, reacted to better-than-expected Q1FY11 numbers. It reported net profit was at Rs 1,844 crore and net sales were at Rs 8,217 crore as against expected net profit at Rs 1784.39 crore and revenues at Rs 8079.6 crore.

Speaking on the road ahead for the company, the TCS management expected FY11 to be a reasonably good year. "The overall environment remains good. All verticals and geographies are doing well." However, they were quick to add that it would be tough to repeat the past quarter's volume growth.