Market update: The Indian equity benchmarks were trading higher on Friday led by gains in information technology shares like Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys after they surpassed market expectations in December quarter. The Sensex rose as much as 493 points and Nifty touched an intraday high of 21,789.

As of 9:20 am, the Sensex was up 324 points at 72,045 and Nifty 50 index rose 95 points to 21,742.

Tata Consultancy Services, the country’s largest software services exporter, reported a better-than-expected increase in third-quarter revenue, helped by the strong performance in the UK.

Consolidated revenue rose to Rs 60,583 crore in the three months to December 31 from Rs 58,229 crore a year earlier, TCS said in an exchange filing.

Analysts on average were expecting revenue of Rs 60,147 crore, according to LSEG data.

Infosys, India's No.2 IT services provider, missed quarterly profit estimates on Thursday, hurt by weak demand from clients amid global economic uncertainty.

Consolidated net profit fell 7.3 per cent to Rs 6,106 crore in the seasonally weak third quarter from a year earlier.

Buying was visible across sectors as 11 of 13 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by Nifty IT index's 2.7 per cent gain. Meanwhile, banking, financial services, consumer durables and oil & gas shares were trading on a subdued note.

Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing a subdued buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indexes rose 0.3 per cent each.

Infosys was top Nifty gainer, the stock surged as 5.82 per cent, the most in over three years after it surpassed market estimates in third quarter of current financial year.

Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services, Tech Mahindra, LTI Mindtree, HCL Technologies, JSW Steel, ONGC, Larsen & Toubro and Apollo Hospitals were also among the gainers.

On the flipside, Mahindra & Mahindra, Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel, Power Grid, Asian Paints, Hero MotoCorp and Coal India were among the losers.

The overall market breadth was positive as 2,036 shares were advancing while 1,035 were declining on the BSE.

(With Reuters inputs)