Heavyweights, ITC and Reliance were marginally down in early trade. Infosys, which is set to declare results later on Friday was trading flat.

Other IT stocks like Wipro and HCL Tech were trading higher, while TCS lost ground.

Banking stocks were trading lower today with ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank among the losers. Pharma stocks which had a good run on Wednesday continued to gain ground with notable gainers from the space being Ranbaxy Labs, Cipla and Lupin Labs.

Real estate stocks which had also rallied substantially on Wednesday added to gains on Thursday. Among the gainers from the space were DLF and Unitech.

Wockhardt which had hit the circuit filter for consecutive trading sessions continued to rally. The stock was up another 3 per cent.

Auto stocks were also having a good day of trade with notable gainers from the space being Maruti and Mahindra and Mahindra.

The Mid Cap index was trading higher today with winners from the space being Voltas, Petronet LNG and Godrej Consumer.

IL&FS Engineering was trading sharply higher by 8 per cent ahead of the board's meeting to consider a rights issue.

Meanwhile, markets in Asia were trading mixed. The Japanese Nikkei was up in trade, while the Honk Kong's Hang Sang and the Chinese Composite were trading lower.

GoodReturns.in