India’s benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty bounced back sharply on Friday driven by buying of blue-chip IT stocks and consumer goods major ITC.
On Thursday, the BSE Sensex tanked 644.64 points or 0.79 per cent to settle at 80,951.99. The Nifty tumbled 203.75 points or 0.82 per cent to 24,609.70.
After a flat start in early sessions on Friday, the 30-share BSE benchmark gauge Sensex, bounced back and jumped 769.09 points to settle at 81,721.08 after late morning deals.
Biggest gainers
Among the biggest gainers from Sensex were ITC, Eternal, Power Grid, Tech Mahindra, Infosys and HCL Tech.
Deviating from the trend, pharma index lost 0.5 per cent. Sun Pharma was the only laggard, dropping 3.3% as brokers expect lower earnings citing softer revenue guidance in this fiscal year.
Among the gainers, Honasa Consumer jumped 12 per cent driven by increased revenue estimates as growth of their new brands improved outlook.
The NSE Nifty surged 243.45 points to 24,853.15.
Despite the gains in the session, both the Nifty and Sensex are down about one per cent for this week, Reuters reported.
Why did Sensex, Nifty gain on Friday?
Easing US treasury yields was attributed as the major reason for broader recovery in emerging markets on Friday. MSCI Asia ex-Japan up 0.4 per cent following a 0.9 per cent drop in the previous session.
Elevated yields and expectations of Trump’s new tax cut bill adding trillions of dollars to US debt prompted investors to offload holdings in emerging markets. Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) offloaded more than ₹5,000 crores worth of Indian equities on Thursday.
Yields eased on Friday as the new tax cut bill narrowly passed the US House, offering relief to some emerging markets.
Aditya Khemka, fund manager at InCred Asset Management, said, “With lingering uncertainty over the US economy, foreign flows and trade negotiations, it is likely that Indian markets will witness consolidation in the short term.”
“The fact that there is a sequential earnings recovery in the March quarter is positive for domestic equities, but the revival is modest at best which will keep the gains capped,” Reuters quoted Khemka as saying.