Sensex, Nifty Edge Higher Led By Gains In Metal Shares

The Indian equity benchmarks reversed early losses and edged higher on Friday led by gains in metal stocks despite weak global cues.

The Sensex recovered as much as 659 points from the day's lowest level and the Nifty 50 index touched an intraday high of 16,643.90 after dropping below 16,500 earlier in the session.

Meanwhile, Asian markets were trading sharply lower on concerns that central banks will increase rates at a faster pace than anticipated after inflation in the United States surged to the highest in four decades amid the Russia-Ukraine war.

The Sensex was up 48.2 points at 55,547 and Nifty advanced 29 points to 16,624.10 by 2:44 pm.

Most of the Asian markets were trading lower on Friday after the fastest U.S. inflation in four decades and a hawkish European Central Bank (ECB) bolstered expectations for more aggressive rate hikes, hammering sentiment already stung by the Ukraine war, news agency Reuters reported. Risk appetite suffered more broadly as investors braced for faster tightening of monetary conditions after data on Thursday showed a 7.9 per cent annualised jump in U.S. consumer inflation in February, the largest increase in 40 years.

Japan's Nikkei fell 2.44 per cent, Hang Seng slumped 3.23 per cent and Straits Times declined 0.2 per cent.

Overnight, S&P 500 fell 0.4 per cent, its fifth drop in the last six days. The slide marks another reversal for U.S. stocks, which just a day earlier surged to their biggest gain since June 2020 when a tumble for oil prices seemed to take some pressure off the world’s high inflation.

Back home, twelve of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty Metal index's over 1 per cent gain. Nifty Media, Bank, Financial Services, Realty, and Private Bank also rose around 1 per cent each.

Broader markets were trading mixed as Nifty Midcap 100 index was trading flat (0.62%) while Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 1.1 per cent.

Maruti Suzuki was the top Nifty loser, the stock fell 1.5 per cent. Tata Motors, Tata Consumer Products, Nestle India, Hindustan Unilever, GDFC, Infosys, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bharti Airtel, and Divi's Labs were also among the losers.

On the flipside, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Coal India, Bharat Petroleum, Hindalco, Sun Pharma, Ultratech Cement, and Shree Cements were among the gainers.

The overall market breadth was positive as 2083 shares were advancing while 1240 were declining on the BSE.