Equity benchmark BSE Sensex overcame a weak start to end nearly 100 points higher on Friday, led by auto, IT and finance stocks, even as global markets dived after US announced fresh tariffs on Chinese imports.
Sentiment received a leg-up after reports said the Prime Minister’s Office and the Finance Ministry had held talks on the issue of tax surcharge on FPIs.
The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 99.90 points or 0.27% to settle at 37,118.22. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty gained 17.35 points or 0.16% to end at 10,997.35.
On a weekly basis, the Sensex lost 764.57 points or 2.01%, while the Nifty declined 286.95 points or 2.54%.
Global markets tanked after US President Donald Trump on Thursday announced that the US will impose 10% levy on USD 300 billion worth Chinese imports, which Beijing vowed to retaliate.
Mortgage lender HDFC climbed 1.75% on Friday after the company reported a 46% rise in standalone net profit to Rs 3,203.10 crore for the June quarter.
Bharti Airtel topped the gainers’ list by spurting 6.02% , followed by Asian Paints, Bajaj Auto, Maruti, M&M, Tech Mahindra, Hero MotoCorp, TCS, L&T and Tata Motors.
On the other hand, SBI was the biggest loser, dropping 2.76%, even as the country’s largest lender posted a standalone net profit of Rs 2,312.02 crore for the first quarter of the current fiscal, driven by higher income and reduction in bad loans.
Tata Steel, NTPC, ONGC, Power Grid, Vedanta, ICICI Bank and ITC were among the other major laggards.
“Global market was weak due to escalation in US-China trade war, but India recovered in the second half of the trading day on optimism as government mulls over exempting FPI from super rich surcharges.
“Additionally, better domestic macros like GST collection, PMI and monsoon forecast in August provided a relief hoping that economy will improve by H2FY20,” said Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Financial Services.
Sectorally, BSE telecom emerged as the biggest gainer by surging 3.63%, followed by auto (1.07%), teck (0.91%), consumer durables (0.79%), information technology (0.65%) and capital goods (0.14%).
Power was the biggest loser, tumbling 1.30%, followed by utilities (1.03%), oil and gas (0.86%), realty (0.82%), bankex (0.62%), industrials (0.32%), basic materials, energy (0.29% each), FMCG (0.27%), healthcare (0.25%), and finance (0.01%).
Foreign investors continued their selling spree and offloaded shares worth a net Rs 1,056.55 crore on Thursday, as per provisional data with stock exchanges.
Meanwhile, the rupee was trading 52 paise lower at 69.58 against the US dollar (intra-day).
The global oil benchmark Brent crude futures soared 2.28 per cent to USD 61.88 per barrel.
Elsewhere in Asia, Shanghai Composite Index slipped 1.41%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng plunged 2.35%, Japan’s Nikkei shed 2.11%, Korea’s Kospi lost 0.95% following ratcheting up of US-China trade tensions.
In European markets, Frankfurt’s DAX was trading 2.45% lower, and Paris CAC 40 dropped 2.62% in their early session. London’s FTSE declined 1.76%.
The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 1.05% lower on Thursday.