IT stocks drive market rebound after 2-day slump
Benchmark equity indices Sensex and Nifty rebounded on Friday after two days of losses and ended higher, tracking buying in blue-chip IT stocks and a rally in global markets.
The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 330.92 points, or 0.43 per cent, to settle at 77,264.51. During the day, it jumped 424.38 points, or 0.55 per cent, to 77,357.97.
The 50-share NSE Nifty settled 84.80 points, or 0.35 per cent, higher at 24,175.65.
Among the 30 Sensex firms, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, HCL Tech, Titan and Eternal were the major winners.
ICICI Bank, UltraTech Cement, Asian Paints and ITC were among the laggards.
“Strong gains in IT stocks helped Indian equities close higher today. The sector was supported by Nvidia’s strong earnings and upbeat outlook, which reinforced optimism around sustained AI-related investments and benefited firms involved in enterprise AI deployment and workflow integration.
“However, investor participation remained selective as markets awaited comments from the Fed Chair at the Jackson Hole symposium for greater clarity on the US interest-rate outlook and global liquidity conditions,” Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Investments Ltd, said.
According to Hariselvan Radhakrishnan, Founder & CEO of HST Wealth, a Research Analyst firm, investors remained positive on IT stocks amid supportive global cues for the sector.
“Indian equity benchmarks ended higher on Friday, snapping a two-session losing streak as strong gains in technology stocks offset subdued performance across much of the broader market. Technology stocks were the session’s clear outperformers, with the Nifty IT index surging 3.5 per cent as investors responded positively to supportive global cues for the sector,” Radhakrishnan said.
The BSE MidCap Select index climbed 0.48 per cent and the SmallCap Select Index was marginally up by 0.02 per cent.
Among BSE sectoral indices, Focused IT surged 3.42 per cent, Information Technology jumped 3.32 per cent, PSU Bank 1.25 per cent, Bankex 1.01 per cent, MidSmall Private Banks 0.94 per cent and Metal 0.71 per cent.
Insurance, Consumer Durables, Energy, Realty, Power and Oil & Gas were the laggards.
On the weekly front, the BSE benchmark declined 276.32 points, or 0.35 per cent, and the Nifty dipped 76.35 points, or 0.31 per cent.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, dipped 0.17 per cent to $89.63 per barrel.
In Asian markets, South Korea’s Kospi and Shanghai’s SSE Composite index ended lower, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index settled higher.
Markets in Europe were trading in positive territory.
US markets ended higher on Thursday.
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 298.26 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data.
Falling for the second day on Thursday, the Sensex dropped 539.35 points, or 0.70 per cent, to settle at the day’s low of 76,933.59 on the monthly derivatives-expiry day. Similarly, the Nifty50 declined 116.90 points, or 0.48 per cent, to end at the day’s low of 24,090.85.
