Benchmark indices gained for the third day running on Friday, with the Sensex climbing over 300 points amid mixed global market trends.
The 30-share BSE benchmark advanced 303.38 points or 0.56 per cent to settle at 54,481.84. During the day, it jumped 448.68 points or 0.82 per cent to 54,627.14.
The broader NSE Nifty went higher by 87.70 points or 0.54 per cent to end at 16,220.60.
From the Sensex pack, Larsen & Toubro, Power Grid, NTPC, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Dr Reddy's Lab, Nestle, Bharti Airtel, Infosys and Hindustan Unilever were the major gainers.
Tata Steel, Maruti Suzuki India, IndusInd Bank, TCS and Asian Paints were among the laggards.
In Asia, markets in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Seoul ended higher, while Shanghai settled marginally lower.
Equity markets in Europe were trading lower in mid-session deals. The US markets had ended higher on Thursday.
"The present rally is driven partly by expectations that given the steady decline in commodity prices, inflation will start showing a declining trend enabling central banks to go a bit slow on hiking rates, and partly by short covering," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
"The Indian rally got stronger as crude prices corrected halving FIIs selling when compared to last week. However, this rally can fizzle out as correction in commodities prices & tightening monetary policy are negative for global economy, limiting earnings growth & valuation expansion. Q1 earnings season will be the prime focus of the market, in the near-term",said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.
“Positive momentum continued in the markets as investors are buying selectively with caution and not going overboard. Most of the negative news has the potential to make a comeback anytime and could trigger a broader sell-off in the markets. Technically, on weekly charts the Nifty has formed a long bullish candle and has also surpassed the short term resistance of 16000. In the short term now, 16000 and the 50 day SMA (Simple Moving Average would be the key support levels to watch out for. The short term texture of the market is positive but slightly overbought. Hence strong possibility of range bound activity is not ruled out in the near future. on the higher side, 16300/54800 and 16450 would be the key resistance zone whereas 16100 and 16000 could be the sacrosanct support levels for the market.”, said Amol Athawale, Deputy Vice President - Technical Research, Kotak Securities Ltd
Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.12 per cent to USD 104.5 per barrel.
Foreign institutional investors remained net sellers on Thursday, offloading shares worth Rs 925.22 crore, as per exchange data
(To receive our E-paper on whatsapp daily, please click here. To receive it on Telegram, please click here. We permit sharing of the paper's PDF on WhatsApp and other social media platforms.)
