Sensex advances 250 points, Nifty reclaims 8,400-mark

The BSE Sensex advanced 250 points in late morning trade Friday on renewed buying, mainly in technology, healthcare, oil & gas, realty and capital goods sectors, following the beginning of June F&O series amid firm Asian cues.

The market breadth indicated that the overall health of the market was strong.

The 30-share Sensex resumed higher at 27,553.03 and hovered in a range of 27,779.93 and 27,467.23 before quoting at 27,802.65 at 1123 hours, a rise of 295.94 points, or 1.08 percent, from its last close.

The NSE Nifty also quoted higher by 88.35 points, or 1.06 percent, at 8,407.35 at 1123 hours.

Major gainers were Bharti Airtel (3.33 percent), Coal India (2.32 percent) and Cipla (2.02 percent).

Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors net sold shares worth Rs 792.54 crore and domestic institutional investors (DIIs) net bought shares worth Rs 683.29 crore yesterday, according to provisional exchange data.

Overseas, Asian stocks edged higher in early trade. Key indices in China, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea were up 0.02-0.28 percent. 

Indices in Singapore and Indonesia were down 0.19-0.57 percent.

In New York, US stocks edged lower yesterday as the deadlocked Greece debt talks weighed on investor sentiment.

Rupee firms up 5 paise against dollar

The rupee edged higher by 5 paise to 63.75 against the dollar in early trade on Friday at the Interbank Foreign Exchange due to increased selling of the US currency by exporters and banks.

This apart, forex dealers said, a higher opening in domestic stock market and a weakening dollar against other currencies overseas backed up the rupee.

The rupee had snapped its 3-day losing streak against the US dollar by ending 21 paise higher at 63.80 in yesterday's trade.

Meanwhile, the benchmark BSE Sensex recovered 50.13 points, or 0.18 percent, to trade at 27,556.84 in early trade today. 

SpiceJet flies high, stock soars 13% on solid results

Shares of SpiceJet zoomed nearly 13 percent Friday after the company posted its first profit in seven quarters.

The stock surged 12.69 percent to Rs 21.30 on BSE.

Coming out of the red after seven quarters, SpiceJet posted a Rs 22.51 crore net profit in the January-March quarter, helped by a Rs 650-crore funding by a new promoter, renegotiated contracts with its vendors and provisioning for re-delivery expenses.

The airline had reported a net loss of Rs 321.50 crore in the fourth quarter of FY14. SpiceJet has also for the first time reported profit in the fourth quarter of a fiscal since 2010.

The new promoter, Ajay Singh has so far infused Rs 650 crore in the carrier, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of SpiceJet, Kiran Koteshwar said, whose appointment as the full-time CFO was approved by the airline board yesterday.

Despite profit, the airline's income from operations declined almost half to Rs 786.32 crore in the reporting quarter compared with Rs 1,573.75 crore a year earlier.