Market Now: IT stocks rally on rupee weakness; HCL Tech zooms 4%

INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
NEW DELHI: Falling rupee seems to have given a fillip to IT stocks as most of them from the Nifty IT pack were trading in the higher
terrain. The Nifty IT index was trading 2.71 per cent up at 13,105 around 10:50 am (IST) with HCL Technologies (up 3.91 per cent) as the top
gainer. It was followed by Tata Consultancy Services (up 3.31 per cent), Tata Elxsi (up 2.74 per cent), Infosys (up 2.51 per cent), KPIT
Technologies (up 2.45 per cent), Tech Mahindra (up 2.22 per cent), MindTree (up 1.69 per cent), Wipro (up 1.31 per cent) and Oracle
Financial Services Software (up 1.30 per cent). The rupee shed 5 paise to hit a fresh five-month low of 65.36 against the US dollar in the
early trade on Thursday following an increased demand for the American currency from banks and importers. Moreover, surging crude oil prices
and growing geopolitical uncertainties have pushed US dollar against some currencies overseas. Equity benchmarks moved up a little shrugging
off weakness in global stocks and concerns over surging oil prices
The NSE Nifty50 index was up 15 points at 10,433, while the BSE Sensex was up 95 points at 34,036. Among the 50 stocks in Nifty index, 18
were trading in the green, while 32 were still in the red. Besides IT, select auto stocks including Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto and Tata
Motors were among the top gainers in the Nifty pack of stocks.