Indian equity benchmarks bounced back at the fag end of the week on Friday led by strength in financial, FMCG and auto stocks, though weakness in select IT and metal stocks limited the upside. Globally, dovish remarks by two Fed officials eased some of the concerns about steep hikes in COVID-era interest rates and shifted investor focus away from disappointing banking earnings in the US.
Both headline indices finished close to their strongest levels of the day. The Sensex jumped as much as 395.2 points or 0.7 percent to 53,811.4 during the session, and the Nifty50 climbed to as high as 16,067, up 128.3 points or 0.8 percent from its previous close.
Tata Consumer, Titan, Hindustan Unilever, Tata Motors and Larsen & Toubro rose the most among the 35 gainers in the Nifty50 basket.
Maruti Suzuki, HDFC, Nestle, Eicher and Mahindra & Mahindra — rising around two percent each — were also among the top blue-chip gainers.
On the other hand, Tata Steel, PowerGrid, HCL TEch, Wiprl, JSW Steel, Dr Reddy's and Axis Bank — closing with losses of around 1-3 percent — among the top laggards.
The HDFC twins and HUL contributed more than 180 points to the gain in the 30-strong index.
Analysts awaited more of corporate earnings from India Inc for domestic cues."Volatility has re-emerged and investors turned their focus on the upcoming Fed policy in the backdrop of heightened US inflation," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.
"A fall in crude prices and a reduction in selling by foreign institutional investors has added to optimism in the domestic market, but gloomy IT results, a depreciating rupee and fears of a global recession are restricting a sizable upmove," he said.
Larsen & Toubro Infotech (LTI) shares ended 2.6 percent higher after the Mumbai-based IT company reported a strong set of results.
The rupee settled at 79.86 against the US dollar, after hitting a lifetime low of 79.95 during the session. The Indian currency has been hitting record lows against the greenback, which has held on to 20-year peaks for the past few weeks.
Overall market breadth remained in favour of the bulls throughout the day, as 1,787 stocks finished higher and 1,500 lower on BSE.
Global markets
European markets began the day in the green boosted by gains in auto and retail stocks, following mixed moves across Asia. The pan-European Stoxx 600 rose as much as 1.2 percent in early hours.
S&P 500 futures were up 0.3 at the last count, suggesting a higher opening ahead on Wall Street.
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