Indian stock market closed higher on Friday, with the Sensex adding 166 points and the Nifty holding firmly above the 24,350 mark, even as heightened volatility kept investors on edge through the session. Sensex and Nifty opened marginally higher on positive global cues before oscillating between gains and losses for much of the day.
Key Highlights
- Indian stock market ended higher as Sensex and Nifty gained amid broad-based buying across key sectors today.
- IT, banking and auto stocks supported benchmark indices, while investors tracked earnings and global market cues.
The sectoral breadth was largely positive with auto, financial services and financial services ex-bank being the top gainers, while realty, pharma and media were also trading up. IT and FMCG were the worst hit, down by more than 2%. Banking indices were largely unchanged with PSU banks showing better performance. Overall, buying was selective, though technology stocks continued to languish.
Top Gainers and Losers of the Session
The biggies on Sensex and Nifty are Jio Financial Services, which more than doubled, and Tata Steel, which rose nearly 2%. Bajaj Finance and Bajaj Finserv were the strong performers with respective gains of 6% and 5% after their impressive Q1 numbers.
Other positive movers were Balkrishna Industries, Quess Corp and GACM Technologies, which were up by 10% or higher in the day. Mahindra & Mahindra also gained almost 3% following a 7% year-on-year jump in standalone net profit, while Morgan Stanley had singled out a potential upside of 29% for the stock.
Thermax' shares dropped by as much as 16% on the day after the company registered an 86% fall in Q1 net profit at Rs 22 crore, mainly on account of a one-time project cost overrun of Rs 91 crore in its Industrial Infra segment. Then, data patterns India lost almost 7 per cent, following 14 per cent decline in quarterly profit, while other declines were seen by Avanti Feeds, Honeywell Automation India, Strides Pharma Science and Syngene International.
Key Earnings Announcements Drive Stock Action
Another strong focus during the session was corporate earnings. Sun Pharma's net profit surged 27% year on year in the June quarter to Rs 2,895 crore while revenue grew 10.5% to Rs 15,300 crore. Bajaj Finserv reported a 12% increase in its consolidated net profit to Rs 3,132 crore, while Bajaj Finance's standalone net profit grew 28% YoY to Rs 6,081 crore, driven by a 23% jump in net interest income.
MTAR Technologies has surged to its upper circuit for the second session in succession on back of an explosive 364.5% year-on-year surge in net profits in the first quarter. In the Q1, ESAF Small Finance Bank (ESFB) reported a net profit of Rs 80.08 crore, while gross NPA stood at 5.4%. In the interim, Swiggy stocks spiked by nearly 6% on the day after releasing its quarterly earnings but then pared losses as investors factored in weaker consolidated loss as well as margin pressures.
NSE Settlement, IPO Activity in Focus
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has decided to resolve all outstanding regulatory matters with the National Stock Exchange (NSE), clearing the last major hurdle for the exchange's long-awaited stock market listing. It is reported that NSE plans to issue Rs 26,000 crore worth of IPO this year.
The Juniper Green Energy IPO fared mixed on its second day of bidding, with the issue 44% subscribed as of early afternoon, with institutional buyers taking the lead in the bidding. The qualified institutional buyers (QIBs), which have the highest subscription limits, had subscribed 1.19 times the quota while the retail and non-institutional investor categories had comparatively low level of interest.
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Commodities and Currency Moves
Gold futures on the MCX fell by about Rs 1.44 lakh per 10 grams on weak spot demand while silver futures lost value to nearly Rs 2.19 lakh per kg due to profit booking. The world's gold price was continuing its march into positive territory for the first time in five months as investors gauged the US-Iran crisis along with the Federal Reserve's latest policy clues.
The Indian rupee has gained its most in a week since March, soaring 1.2% week-on-week, and opened 0.3% higher against the US dollar on Friday. Bitcoin, on the other hand, remained in a range around $64K as the markets figured the US inflation data, which had been on a downtrend, were offset by a still-hawkish Federal Reserve outlook.
Global Cues Remain Supportive
The overall sentiment in global markets was favourable for Indian stocks. Overnight, U.S. markets rose aggressively, with semiconductor shares and Microsoft after an upbeat outlook rallying. The Asian indices rose as well, with South Korea's Kospi index gaining more than 16-17% on Tuesday after a hard-fought selloff over the past few days on AI-related chipmaking stocks.
S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures were both up as well as Japan's Topix and the Euro Stoxx 50 futures. But Hong Kong's Hang Seng was a minor negative, even as the overall mood of the Asian markets was positive.
Outlook for Nifty
Analysts believe that the Nifty's short-term trend is bullish, with the index creating higher highs and higher lows on the daily chart. The index is predicted to cross the 24,390 – 24,500 range during the upcoming sessions with the immediate support zone being 24,041 - 24,136. The downside saw support move up towards the 23,800–24,000 range, which aligns with the 20-day and 50-day exponential moving averages.
The overall sentiment remains fairly positive, with positive earnings from certain financials, clarity of regulations for the IPO of NSE and positive global cues, traders will now be on the lookout for any further direction from earnings releases and commentary from the global central banks.
