Indian equity markets will remain closed today on account of Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti. Commodity and currency markets are also shut for the day.
The equity market started the month on a strong note with the benchmark indices ralling more than 1.5 percent in the previous session led by a surge in financials and media stocks. The
Sensex ended 629 points higher at 38,697 while the Nifty rose 169 points to settle at 11,417. For the week, both indices were up over 3 percent each.
Broader markets underperformed indices but were also up for the day. Nifty Midcap and Nifty Smallcap rose 0.8 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively. On the Nifty50 index, four of five top stocks were financials. IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Auto, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank were the top gainers while Dr Reddy's, ITC, ONGC, NTPC and Titan led the losses.
Meanwhile, Asian markets were little changed on Friday, as a U.S. stimulus deal remained out of reach and investors waited on fresh U.S. employment data for a read on the economic toll from the coronavirus pandemic.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.11 percent. Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index fell 0.86 percent as a decline in oil and copper prices weighed on the resources sector.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index was up 0.19 percent after the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) resumed normal trading after its worst-ever outage brought the world’s third-largest equity market to a standstill.
U.S. stock futures fell 0.23 percent as an additional economic stimulus package remained elusive despite renewed efforts from Washington negotiators.
