Sensex Ends Marginally Higher; Broader Market Outperforms

(RTTNews) - Indian shares eked out marginal gains on Friday, even as global sentiment turned cautious amid a global bond selloff and ahead of the closely-watched U.S. jobs data due tonight that could strengthen the case for the Federal Reserve to raise rates by the year-end.

The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex closed 25.61 points or 0.09 percent higher at 27,941.51 while the broader CNX Nifty index inched up 22.75 points or 0.26 percent to finish at 8,638. The BSE mid-cap and small-cap indexes closed up around 1 percent each.

Tech Mahindra shares soared nearly 5 percent after the IT firm reported better-than-expected earnings for the September quarter. Two-wheeler manufacturer Bajaj Auto rallied 3.4 percent on reporting a 7 percent increase in Q2 profit.

Bharat Electronics climbed 3.8 percent and Vedanta advanced 1.4 percent after strong quarterly results. Tata Group shares recovered some lost ground, with Tata Steel, Tata Motors and Tata Elxsi rising 2-4 percent.