Indian equities maintained strength in the late morning trade on Friday led by IT, banks, financials and auto stocks while metals, power and pharma stocks witnessed profit booking. Both Sensex and Nifty were trading at a new life time high.

At 11.17 a.m., the Sensex was trading up 408.09 points or 0.69% at 59,549.25 with 20 components gaining.  Meanwhile, the Nifty was trading higher by 106.10 points or 0.60% at 17,735.60 with 31 components gaining. 

Major gainers in the 30-share index were Bajaj Finserv  (3.69%), Bajaj Finance (2.92%), Kotak Mahindra Bank (2.63%), Titan (1.58%), Bajaj Auto (1.33%) and Axis Bank (1.25%).

On the other hand, Tata Steel (2.98%), ONGC (1.90%), State Bank of India (0.47%), IndusInd Bank (0.46%), NTPC (0.36%), Sun Pharma (0.28%) and UltraTech Cement (0.21%) were the major losers in the Sensex.

Market breadth was negative with 1,259 advances against 1,826 declines.

On global front, Asian stocks were steady early Friday as traders weighed risks from China to the global recovery and the prospect of reduced Federal Reserve stimulus. Equities in Japan and Taiwan Index gained modestly while Hong Kong and South Korea Index declined nearly half percent each. SGX Nifty is up 0.3% while Dow Future declined 0.1%.

US stocks ended mostly lower despite paring earlier losses on Thursday as investors weighed an unexpected jump in retail sales (speculation that the US Fed may start paring back stimulus soon) against an increase in weekly jobless claims. Both Dow and S&P 500 declined 0.2% each. Expects higher intra-day volatility in the US market today ahead of expiration of options and futures, a quarterly event that usually brings increased volume and volatility. The 10-year US Treasury yield rose 3 basis points to 1.34%.

European stock markets closed higher on Thursday as investors watched economic data and as travel stocks rose 8% after airlines major Ryanair raised its long-term traffic forecast. UK, Germany and France Index gained quarter to half percent.