NEW DELHI: BSE Telecom index was trading almost flat in Friday's afternoon trading session as the gains in HFCL (up 4.90 per cent), ITI (up 3.13 per cent), GTL (up 1.68 per cent), Tata Communications (up 0.99 per cent), Bharti Airtel (up 0.62 per cent), Reliance Communications (up 0.58 per cent) and Idea Cellular (up 0.27 per cent) were offset by losses in Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (down 2.16 per cent), Bharti Infratel (down 1.20 per cent), Tejas Networks (down 0.83 per cent) and Vindhya Telelinks (down 0.63 per cent).

The S&P BSE Telecom index was trading 2 points up at 1,348 around 1.45 pm (IST). Benchmark Sensex was 186 points up at 31,778, while Nifty50 index was trading 77 points up at 9,965 around the same time.

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Domestic equity markets remained firm due to buying across sectors. BSE Smallcap index rose over 1 per cent. BASF India, India Glycols and NACL Industries surged over 15 per cent in the smallcap index.

BSE Midcap index also gained nearly 1 per cent. SAIL, Endurance Technologies, Muthoot Finance and Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals advanced over 3 per cent in the midcap index.

PSU banks such as Union Bank, State Bank of India and Punjab National Bank rose over 2 per cent in Friday's trade. Indian Bank, IDBI Bank and Bank of Baroda advanced up to 2 per cent.

Tata Steel, NTPC, Sun Pharma, State Bank of India and Infosys were leading among Sensex gainers.

On the BSE, 1,726 stocks were advancing whereas 829 stocks were lagging and 96 stocks were appearing unchanged.