Stock Markets Recover From Early Losses, Trade Higher
Indian equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty staged a strong recovery on Friday, bouncing back from early weakness to trade in positive territory. The turnaround was fueled by renewed foreign fund inflows and growing expectations of US Federal Reserve rate cuts.
Key Market Movements
After opening lower, both indices quickly reversed course:
- Sensex: Dropped 261.58 points to 83,206.08 initially, then gained 151.89 points to 83,625.05
- Nifty: Fell 76.7 points to 25,508.60 early, then rose 31.60 points to 25,617.30
Top Performers and Laggers
Major gainers from the Sensex pack included Asian Paints, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bharat Electronics, Bharti Airtel and Titan. However, Eternal declined over 2% following its earnings announcement. HCL Tech, Infosys, Tech Mahindra and Power Grid were among the underperformers.
Institutional Activity Boosts Sentiment
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) purchased equities worth Rs 997.29 crore on Thursday, while Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) bought stocks worth Rs 4,076.20 crore in the previous trading session.
“A turnaround in FII inflows, expectations of Fed rate cuts, the IMF’s upward revision of India’s FY26 GDP growth forecast to 6.6 per cent, and crude prices staying weak near USD 57.35 a barrel have lifted sentiment,” said Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd.
Global Market Context
In Asian markets, South Korea’s Kospi traded positively while Japan’s Nikkei 225, Shanghai’s SSE Composite and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng quoted lower. US markets ended lower on Thursday. Global oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.25% to USD 60.94 a barrel.
On Thursday, the Sensex had jumped 862.23 points (1.04%) to settle at 83,467.66, while the Nifty surged 261.75 points (1.03%) to 25,585.30.
