Domestic equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty extended gains for the third straight session on Friday, tracking positive cues from global and Asian markets.
At 9:23 am, the BSE Sensex was up 268.58 points, or 0.33 per cent, at 80,986.59, after rising as much as 318 points in early trade. The NSE Nifty50 climbed 81.20 points, or 0.33 per cent, to 24,815.50, having hit a day’s high of 24,832.35.
Among Sensex stocks, Power Grid led gainers, rising 1 per cent to Rs 284.80. Asian Paints shares climbed 0.98 per cent. Other gainers included Mahindra & Mahindra (up 0.97 per cent), Reliance Industries (up 0.85 per cent) and Trent (up 0.80 per cent).
In overnight trade, the S&P 500 rose 0.83 per cent to close at 6,502.08, while the Nasdaq gained 0.98 per cent to 21,707.69. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.77 per cent to settle at 45,621.29.
Earlier today, most Asian markets were higher on Friday, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 advancing 0.73 per cent to 42,890.85 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbing 0.52 per cent to 25,188.11.
On Thursday, the Sensex climbed 150.30 points, or 0.19 per cent, to close at 80,718.01, while the Nifty50 advanced 19.25 points, or 0.08 per cent, to end at 24,734.30.
VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments Limited, said the initial enthusiasm witnessed in the market yesterday couldn’t be sustained. “The expected short-covering did not happen, bringing the prices down towards the close,” he said.
“Also, the market had partly discounted the GST reforms earlier. The high valuations even amidst geopolitical and tariff-related headwinds helped bears to accumulate short positions in the market,” Vijayakumar said.
Vijayakumar noted that the sustained massive buying by mutual funds in equity has touched Rs 70,500 crore in August, “with high money muscle facilitated by the sustaining fund flows into the market mutual bund buying will support the market during declines.”
“A significant feature of the present market trend is the weakness in overvalued mid and smallcaps and relative strength in the fairly valued largecaps. This is a healthy trend which can be expected to continue,” Vijayakumar said.
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