The Indian equity benchmarks edged higher on Friday paced by gains in Reliance Industries, Hindustan Unilever, Maruti Suzuki, HDFC, ITC and ICICI Bank. The Sensex rose as much as 265 points and Nifty 50 index reclaimed its important psychological level of 17,800 amid weak global cues. Asian equities edged lower as investors grappled with mixed earnings reports, while the Japanese yen held firm ahead of the Bank of Japan's policy review.
As of 9:21 am, the Sensex was up 229 points at 59,985 and Nifty 50 index advanced 60 points to 17,797.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.32 per cent, set to snap a three-day winning streak. The index is down nearly 3 per cent for the month and 30 per cent for the year.
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Japan's Nikkei fell 1.33 per cent, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index lost 0.55 per cent. China's stock market was 0.60 per cent lower, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index down 0.5 per cent.
Wall Street delivered another mixed finish for stocks Thursday, as disappointing quarterly results from several big tech companies offset gains elsewhere in the market.
The S&P 500 fell 0.6 per cent, with about 44 per cent of stocks within the benchmark index losing ground. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 1.6 per cent, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6 per cent.
Facebook’s parent company, Meta Platforms, plummeted 24.6 per cent for the biggest drop in the S&P 500 after reporting a second straight quarter of revenue decline amid falling advertising sales and stiff competition from TikTok. It joined other tech and communications stocks, such as Google’s parent company, Alphabet, and Microsoft, in reporting weak results and worrisome forecasts over advertising demand. Alphabet fell 2.9 per cent and Microsoft slid 2 per cent.
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Back home, nine of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty PSU Bank index's nearly 1 per cent gain. Oil & Gas, Auto, Bank, Financial Services and Private Bank indices were also trading higher.
On the other hand, Metal, Healthcare, Consumer Durables and Pharma shares were facing selling pressure.
Mid- and small-cap shares were trading on a muted note as Nifty Midcap 100 index was trading marginally lower while Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.15 per cent.
Coal India was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 2 per cent to Rs 245. ONGC, Hero MotoCorp, HDFC, Bajaj Auto, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Finserv, Larsen & Toubro, Bajaj Finance, HDFC Bank and Reliance Industries also rose between 0.75-1.7 per cent each.
On the flipside, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Hindalco, Sun Pharma, Divi's Labs, Tata Consumer Products, Britannia Industries, Infosys, Tech Mahindra and Dr Reddy's Labs were among the losers.
The overall market breadth was positive as 1,590 shares were advancing while 992 were declining on the BSE.
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