Stock benchmark Sensex rose nearly 113 points in early trade on Friday, tracking gains in index majors HDFC Bank, Tata Steel and Kotak Mahindra Bank as a sharp drop in global crude oil prices and foreign fund inflows boosted investor sentiment.
The BSE barometer traded 112.71 points higher at 58,681.22. The broader NSE Nifty rose 33.35 points to 17,498.10.
NTPC, Power Grid, Tata Steel, Mahindra & Mahindra, HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank were among the top gainers from the 30 stock package.
In contrast, Titan, Infosys, ICICI Bank and Nestle India were the biggest laggards.
On Thursday, the 30-item BSE benchmark fell 115.48 points, or 0.20%, to 58,568.51. The Nifty fell 33.50 points, or 0.19%, to settle at 17,464.75.
Elsewhere in Asia, the Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong bourses traded lower during mid-session transactions, while Shanghai was in the green.
Stock exchanges in the US ended the night session on a negative note.
Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent fell 4.88% to $107.91 a barrel.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained buyers as they bought £3,088.73 billion worth of shares, according to stock market data on Thursday.
For 2021-22, the BSE Sensex is up 9,059.36 points, or 18.29%, while the Nifty is up 2,774.05 points, or 18.88%.
“Markets are in shaky territory as we enter the new fiscal year. Globally, the main headwinds for equity markets are falling liquidity, persistently high inflation in the US and an increasingly restrictive Fed. On the positive side, negative real returns on fixed income securities causing the growing retail investor base to put more money into stocks.
“This strong new trend, which is very noticeable in India, has the potential to keep markets resilient even amidst the uncertainty caused by the Ukraine war,” said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
The government released a slew of recent macroeconomic data on Thursday, pointing to the country’s current economic scenario.
Output from eight infrastructure sectors rose 5.8 percent in February, the strongest growth in the past four months, according to official data, on better production from coal, natural gas, refined products and the cement industry.
India’s current account deficit widened to $23 billion, or 2.7% of GDP, in the December quarter, according to the Reserve Bank.
The Union government intends to raise 8.45 lakhcrore through borrowing in the first half of 2022-23 to fund the revenue shortfall for reviving the economy, the Treasury said on Thursday.
The Centre’s budget deficit at the end of February stood at 82.7% of its budget target for the full year, mainly due to higher spending.
The government on Thursday left interest rates on small savings plans, including PPF and NSC, unchanged for the first quarter of 2022-23 amid rising inflation.
Investor wealth jumped to over 59.75 lakh crore in fiscal 2021-22, helped by a broadly buoyant trend in domestic equities, with the benchmark Sensex index rising over 18% over the period.
Despite many headwinds in the latter part of the current fiscal year, Sensex ended fiscal 2021-22 up 9,059.36 points, or 18.29%.
