TCS, Infy power Sensex 300 points higher; Nifty above 24,400

Indian benchmark equity indices opened higher on Friday, driven by IT stocks after heavyweight Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) beat revenue estimates for the June quarter.

The BSE Sensex was trading 281 points, higher at 80,178. The Nifty50 was up 93 points, trading at 24,408 around 9:40 am.

Shares of TCS, India's top IT services company, rose nearly 3% in early trade after the firm reported a quarterly revenue beat on Thursday, despite warning about demand uncertainty.

Other top Sensex gainers included Infosys, M&M, L&T, Tata Steel, Adani Ports, Tech Mahindra, and SBI. Meanwhile, Maruti, Asian Paints, Sun Pharma, NTPC, and ITC opened with losses.

US-rate-sensitive IT stocks could also be buoyed by soft inflation data, which boosted bets of a Federal Reserve rate cut in September.

The odds of a 25 basis point cut rose to 85% after US consumer prices unexpectedly fell in June, compared to 70% a day before, according to CME FedWatch.

The report followed Fed Chair Jerome Powell's testimony to lawmakers earlier in the week where he said that "more good data" would build the case for interest rate cuts.

Meanwhile, India's retail inflation is expected to be close to 5% in June, in line with the Reserve Bank of India's expectations but still above the 4% target to start talking about lowering interest rates, central bank chief Shaktikanta Das told local media on Thursday. The data is due after the closing bell.

On the sectoral front, barring the Nifty Realty index, all sectoral indices traded in the green in early trade. Nifty IT rose 1.6%, while Nifty Media surged 1.3%. In the broader market, Nifty Midcap 100 gained 0.23%, and Nifty Smallcap 100 surged 0.6%.

Meanwhile, Jio Financial Services shares surged 2% after the company received approval from the country's central bank to convert from a non-banking financial firm to a core investment company.

Experts View
"The market which has been moving in a narrow range this week might react favourably to positive global and domestic cues. The positive global cue is the decline in inflation in the US by 0.1% in June triggering hopes of a rate cut by the Fed in September for which the market indicates a 90% probability. The positive domestic cue is the better than expected numbers from TCS and positive management commentary which can lift most IT stocks," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.

Deven Mehata, Research Analyst at Choice Broking, said, "Nifty can find support at 24,300 followed by 24,200 and 24,150. On the higher side, 24,400 can be an immediate resistance, followed by 24,450 and 24,500."

Global Markets
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was little changed, though was on track for a 1.6% increase for the week, helped by growing bets of imminent U.S. rate cuts.

Japan's Nikkei similarly fell 2.3%, dragged down by technology stocks.

S&P 500 futures were little changed, while Nasdaq futures fell 0.02% and EUROSTOXX 50 futures were flat.

FII/DII Tracker
The foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turned net sellers on July 11 as they sold equities worth Rs 1,137 crore, while domestic institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 1,676 crore.



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