The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes staged a gap up opening in trade on Friday on the back of a broad-based buying interest led by information technology shares ahead of corporate earnings of Tata Consultancy Services. The domestic markets mirrored gains in other Asian markets as investors looked beyond rising coronavirus cases and political unrest in the United States and bet on an economic recovery later in the year. The Sensex rose as much as 410 points to hit an intraday high of 48,503.71 and Nifty 50 index touched record high of 14,259.15.
As of 9:25 am, the Sensex was up 308 points at 48,401.74 and Nifty climbed 106 points to 14,243.
Buying was visible across sectors as all the 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty IT index’s over 1.5 per cent gain ahead of index bellwether Tata Consultancy Services’ third quarter earnings. Nifty Auto, Media, Pharma and Realty indexes also rose between 1-1.4 per cent each.
Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.7 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.8 per cent.
UPL was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose over 4 per cent to ₹ 504. Bharat Petroleum, Sun Pharma, Eicher Motors, Infosys, Adani Ports, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, HCL Technologies, Cipla and Coal India also rose between 2-2.7 per cent.
On the flipside, Hindalco, HDFC, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Titan were among the notable losers.
The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 1,706 shares were advancing while 521 were advancing on the BSE.