Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty traded higher following a volatile early session on Friday, supported by continued foreign fund inflows and moderate crude oil prices that injected optimism into domestic equities, with the BSE Sensex initially rising 33 points to 79,343.06 and the NSE Nifty opening down 52.95 points at 24,477.40 before both benchmarks gathered strong momentum later in the session as the Sensex advanced 443.87 points to 79,760.10 and the Nifty climbed 81 points to 24,612.85. Mahindra & Mahindra emerged as a top performer among the 30 Sensex firms, surging over 4 per cent after reporting a 25 per cent year-on-year rise in September-ended second-quarter consolidated profit after tax at Rs 4,587.88 crore driven by robust auto segment revenue despite West Asian conflict-induced commodity headwinds, alongside other gainers like Titan, HCL Tech, TCS, Infosys and Bharti Airtel, while Asian Paints, Power Grid, Bajaj Finance and Bharat Electronics lagged behind. Globally, Brent crude traded 2.35 per cent higher at USD 100.6 per barrel, while exchange data revealed that Foreign Institutional Investors bought equities worth Rs 14,974.68 crore on Thursday. Asian counterparts including South Korea’s Kospi, Japan’s Nikkei 225, Shanghai’s SSE Composite, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng traded significantly lower after US markets suffered a sharp overnight bloodbath on Thursday where the Nasdaq plummeted 5.52 per cent, the S&P 500 dropped 4.36 per cent, and the Dow Jones fell 3.44 per cent. Commenting on the situation, V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Investments Limited, stated that although the US market rout would affect global bourses, India is poised to be the least impacted and the tech deceleration in artificial intelligence trade would actually benefit India, noting that FIIs pumped in Rs 35,781 crore over the last five days, ensuring market resilience against domestic institutional investor profit booking. This follows a phenomenal rally where the Sensex soared 2,008.61 points (2.60 per cent) to 79,310.01 and the Nifty surged 576 points (2.40 per cent) to 24,536.60 on Thursday, marking a six-session streak where Sensex gained 6,063.98 points (8.27 per cent) and Nifty rallied 1,837.75 points (8 per cent). Echoing similar views, Ponmudi R, CEO of Enrich Money, noted that Wall Street’s sharp sell-off due to AI trade unwinding and semiconductor losses dragged S&P 500 and Nasdaq into correction territory alongside steep losses in Asian benchmarks like Japan’s Nikkei 225 down over 5 per cent and South Korea’s Kospi losing over 6 per cent, reflecting widespread risk-off sentiment.
Early Session Sees Sensex and Nifty Gain Ground on Continuous Foreign Buying
