The key equity barometers traded with slight losses in early trade. Nifty opened at 24539 and hit a high of 24630 in first half hour of trade. Nifty IT, Nifty Auto and Nifty Media shares advanced, while Nifty Financial Services and Nifty Private Bank shares retreated. At 09:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, edged lower by 386.18 points or 0.49% to 78,568.58. The Nifty 50 index posted modest losses of 61.15 points or 0.25% to 24,574.85. The broader market outperformed the frontline indices. The BSE 150 MidCap Index edged higher by 0.12% and the BSE 250 SmallCap Index inched up 0.18%. The market breadth was healthy. On the BSE, 2327 shares rose and 2068 shares fell. A total of 297 shares were unchanged. Nifty IT index rose 1.17% to 31469. The index has registered sharp gains of 14.04% in last one month and inched down 9.64% over last one year. TCS, adding 2.49%, led the gainers followed by Mphasis, up 1.76% and LTM, inching higher 1.39%, respectively. Out of 10 index constituents, 9 are reporting gains today. Nifty Auto index climbed 1.11% to 29436. The index has added 6.43% in last one month and jumped 22.59% over last one year. Samvardh. Mothe., advancing 8.41%, led the gainers followed by Exide Inds., edging up 2.65% and Hero Motocorp, gaining 1.58%, respectively. Out of 15 index constituents, 12 are reporting gains today. Nifty Financial Services index edged lower by 0.80%. The index has edged lower 0.48% in last one month and posted modest gains of 1.87% over last one year. Bajaj Finance, edging lower 4.70%, led the losers followed by Bajaj Finserv, slipping 3.67% and ICICI Bank, down 1.87%, respectively. Out of 20 index constituents, 11 are reporting loss today. In NIFTY500, Siemens Ener.Ind is the top gainer today, jumping 12.55% to Rs 3660. The counter is slightly up 2.86% in last one year. It recorded an average volume quantity of 15554.67 in last five sessions compared to 22147.12 over last one month. Asian markets posted modest gains on Friday. China’s Shanghai composite is trading higher by 0.56%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is slightly higher by 0.13%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 is slightly lower by 0.45%.