Sensex Today: The Indian equity markets settled near the day’s high on Friday as investors lapped up metal and IT shares, along with index heavyweights like Reliance Industries, HDFC twins, Sun Pharma, and Bajaj Finance.
The S&P BSE Sensex soared 712 points, or 1.25 per cent, to end at 57,570, while the Nifty50 shut shop at 17,158, up 229 points or 1.35 per cent. In the broader market, the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices, too, added over 1 per cent each.
Sectorally, the Nifty Metal index climbed 4 per cent, followed by the Nifty IT index (2 per cent). Public sector banks were the only losers with the Nifty PSB index down 1.2 per cent.
Among stocks, Westlife Development extended gains by rising over 6 per cent. It reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 23.57 crore in Q1FY23 as compared to a net loss of Rs 33.39 crore in the April-June quarter a year ago.
Dr. V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said: “Markets have ignored the technical recession in the US – GDP contracting for 2 consecutive quarters- and are pinning more faith on the resilience of the economy as reflected in very low unemployment of 3.6 per cent and job vacancies at historical highs. Also, the Fed chief’s observations yesterday indicate that the Fed is likely to slow down rate hikes after one more large hike in September. In India the big positive for the market is the FIIs reducing their selling substantially and even turning buyers for 8 days this month. The expected outperformance of financials has played out well. Q1 results indicate improving prospects for this segment. The short-covering bounce in IT may continue in the near term. If the ongoing market rally continues for some more time there is the danger of the market moving into overbought territory with the risk of vulnerability to correction.”
Global Cues
Asian stocks took their cue on Friday from a late rally on Wall Street, as markets focused on a possible slowdown in the pace of rate hikes rather than a US recession after data showed its economy shrinking for a second straight quarter.
Tokyo stocks opened higher on Friday, extending rallies on Wall Street, after a contraction of the US economy sparked expectations of a slowdown in Federal Reserve rate hikes. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 0.25 per cent, or 68.16 points, at 27,883.64 in early trade, while the broader Topix index edged up 0.02 per cent, or 0.36 points, to 1,949.21.
US stocks on Thursday rallied for a second day, with all three major indexes ending up more than 1% as data showing a second consecutive quarterly contraction in the economy fueled investor speculation the Federal Reserve may not need to be as aggressive with interest rate hikes as some had feared.
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