From correspondents in Maharashtra, India, 04:01 PM IST

Indian equity markets turned choppy Friday but managed to stay in the green till early afternoon. There was buying interest in banking, realty, power and telecom stocks, but technology and metal stocks were under selling pressure.

At 1:00 p.m., the 30-share benchmark index of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the Sensex, was at 13,180.29, up 68.44 points or 0.52 percent from its closing figure Thursday. It had touched a high of 13,274.72 earlier.

At the same time the broader-based S and amp;P CNX Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange was up by 10.40 points or 0.26 percent at 3,957.60.

The market breadth was positive. On BSE, 1,266 shares advanced, 1,053 declined and 89 remained unchanged.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)