NEW DELHI: A phone call between the US and Chinese trade representatives calmed the frayed nerves of investors on
Dalal Street, taking domestic equity indices higher in opening trade on Friday. Firm cues from global peers also boosted the sentiment back home. RIL and private bank stocks were at the forefront of this rally.
Meanwhile, India’s Covid cases crossed 56,000 with Mumbai and Delhi emerging as major hotbeds of the fast-spreading virus. It has claimed nearly 1,900 lives till now.
At 9.20 am,
BSE flagship Sensex was up 501 points or 1.59 per cent at 31,944 while NSE benchmark
Nifty added 141 points or 0.54 per cent to 9,340. Broader market indices were trading in-line with their headline peers as Nifty Smallcap advanced 1.28 per cent while Nifty Midcap gained 1.25 per cent. Nifty 500 was up 1.52 per cent.
In the 30-share pack Sensex, IndusInd Bank was the biggest gainer, up 3.03 per cent at Rs 467.40, while HUL, which witnessed a bulk deal in which GSK offloaded its entire stake, jumped 3.09 per cent to Rs 2054.
Reliance Industries, which got the third cheque for Jio Platforms in three weeks, rose 2.43 per cent to Rs 1543.90. Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank and Tata Steel were among other big gainers.
SBI Card and Shree Cement that are going to report their March quarter numbers later in the day gained up to 1.5 per cent.
On the other hand, Asian
Paints and Power Grid were among the two losers in the index, slipping about 0.8 per cent each.
All sectoral indices on NSE traded with gains. Nifty Private bank was the biggest gainer, up 2.14 per cent while all other indices rose in the range of 1-2 per cent.
Globally, Asian shares rose as investors focused on talks between the US and Chinese trade officials and solid corporate earnings rather than the looming release of data expected to show the worst US unemployment rate in more than 70 years.
The news on the US-China trade war front lifted US stock futures, pushing E-minis for the S&P 500 up 1.06 per cent to 2,910.5.
MSCI's broadest gauge of Asian share indexes outside Japan was 1.1 per cent higher and Japan's Nikkei added 1.78 per cent.
Australian shares were 0.76 per cent higher. China's blue-chip CSI300 index gained 0.86 per cent.