Indian benchmark equity indices, the BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty50, started Friday’s trade on a positive note, shrugging off a weak start to the earnings season as IT bellwether Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) reported lower-than-expected revenue on Thursday. Indices tracked firm sentiment from the global markets as optimism over the US China trade deal grew following US President Donald Trump’s tweet on Thursday, that he would be meeting the Chinese Vice Premire Liu He on Friday. Trump called the first day of trade talks between the US and Chinese officials as “very, very good”.

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The benchmark 30-share BSE Sensex gained over 280 points, or 0.74 percent, to 38,160.80 in initial trade. The broader 50-share NSE Nifty50 also gained 78 points, or 0.69 percent, to 11,312.50.

Broader market indices were also positive but the Nifty MidCap 100 index lagged behind its frontline peer, rising just 0.46 percent. The banking guage Nifty Bank outperformed, rising almost 1.5 percent. Apart from bank, finance, FMCG, auto and metal advanced among sectoral gauges, while IT, pharma, teck, telecom and energy declined.

Shares of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) fell 3 percent on weak second quarter earnings. The IT major's net profit for the second quarter ended September 30, 2019 rose just 1.8 percent, at Rs 8,042 crore, while revenues grew just 5.8 percent.

Our entire focus is now to get back to our double-digit growth, said Rajesh Gopinathan, MD & CEO of TCS in an interview to CNBC-TV18.

India's second largest IT firm Infosys is also due to release its second quarter results later in the day and is expected to report dollar revenue growth of around 2.8 percent.

Metal stocks were leading gainers on both frontline indices as hopes of US-China trade deal grew. Vedanta gained over 4.5 percent, while Tata Steel surged over 3 percent. The Tata Group's steel company on Thursday reported that its domestic sales fell 4.2 percent on year to 4.14 million tonne in the quarter ended September, while production rose 4.6 percent to 4.5 million tonne.

Hindalco, Coal India and JSW Steel were other major gainers, while Cipla, TCS, ZEEL, Bharti Airtel and Tech Mahindra fell by up to 6.43 percent.

Bandhan Bank shares jumped hit the upper price band, rising 20 percent, as the stock will be listed to the MSCI index effective October 16. The bank got the Reserve Bank of India nod for its merger with Gruh Finance.

Shares of Biocon traded half a percent higher as its subsidiary Biocon Biologics has entered into a strategic licensing agreement to develop and commercialise a biosimilar asset of Just–Evotec Biologics, a German drugmaker.

In the currency market, the Indian rupee strengthened against the US dollar on Friday in line with positive sentiment in the global stock markets.

The rupee opened at 70.8363 per dollar, up 23 paise from its previous close of 71.0663. At 9.05 AM, the rupee was trading at 70.8450, up 0.31 percent against the US dollar. In early trade, the rupee hit a high and a low of 70.8475 and 70.8075, respectively.

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First Published:Oct 11, 2019 9:58 AM IST