Sensex Surges Over 350 Points, Nifty Above 17,800

The Indian equity benchmarks were trading on a positive note on Friday as indicated by the SGX index. The BSE Sensex surged as much as 349 points, whereas Nifty 50 index surged as much as 17,899. 

At 9:20 am, the BSE Sensex was trading 332 points or 0.56 per cent higher at 60,020, whereas the Nifty 50 index advanced 96.10 points or 0.54 per cent at 17,894. The Nifty Midcap 50 index was trading 0.41 per cent higher at 8,750, whereas the Nifty Midcap 100 index was trading 0.53 per cent higher to 32,092. Barring the stocks of real estate, all sectoral indices witnessed strong buying with metal,  banking, and FMCG trading between 0.55 per cent to 1.22 per cent. 

On Thursday, the US stocks ended higher on Thursday, thus extending its first weekly gains in four weeks. The S&P 500 surged by 26.31 points or 0.7 per cent higher to 4,006, whereas the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 193.24 points or 0.6 per cent to 31,774. While the Nasdaq rose 70.23 points or 0.6 per cent to 11,862, the Russell 2000 index was trading 14.90 points or 0.8 per cent to 1,846. 

Meanwhile, the Asian stocks were trading higher on Friday following gains by Wall Street. Japan’s Nikkei advanced 0.3 per cent, whereas South Korea’s KOSPI surged 0.33 per cent. While China’s Shanghai Composite advanced 0.40 per cent, Shenzhen Component gained 0.49 per cent. Singapore’s Hang Seng index was trading 2.01 per cent. 

Back home, IndusInd Bank, Hindustan Unilever Limited, State Bank of India, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, and Infosys were amongst the top gainers. Bharti Airtel and PowerGrid were the top losers.