Stock Market Updates: Sensex Rises 400 Points, Nifty Above 25,500; IIFL Finance Soars 11%

Indian benchmark indices BSE Sensex and Nifty 50 opened higher on Friday, led by overnight gains on the Wall Street.

At opening bell, the BSE Sensex was higher by 421 points, or 0.51 per cent, at 83,606, while the Nifty 50 was at 25,528, up 112 points, or 0.44 per cent.

Gains on Sensex were led by steel stocks such as JSW Steel, Tata Steel, apart from Mahindra & Mahindra, Adani Ports & SEZ, and Bajaj Finserv, while losses were led by Axis Bank, Tata Motors, Titan, Asian Paints, and NTPC.

The trend was mirrored on the Nifty 50, with gains led by JSW Steel and Tata Steel, followed by Hindalco Industries, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Coal India. Meanwhile, gains on the index was capped by Axis Bank, Cipla, Tata Motors, Titan, and Asian Paints.

Across sectors, the Metal and Realty indices had surged ahead, up to 1.73 per cent, while most other sectoral indices were also in the green, barring Consumer Durables.

The broader rebounded from their lower close on Thursday, with the BSE SmallCap gaining 0.59 per cent, and the BSE MidCap ahead by 0.50 per cent.

Global Cues

Meanwhile, markets in the Asia-Pacific region opened higher on Friday, following the surge on Wall Street.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 was leading gains, up 1.76 per cent, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 climbed 0.2 per cent. The broad-based Topix was ahead by 1.63 per cent.

South Korea’s blue chip Kospi had advanced 1.45 per cent and the small-cap Kosdaq was up 1.51 per cent.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index futures were at 18,177, higher than HSI’s last close of 18,013, while futures tied to mainland China’s blue chip CSI 300 stood at 3,198.8, compared with the index’s last close of 3,196.

Overnight, major Wall Street indices broke record highs after global counterparts booked gains and Treasury yields rose on Thursday as the start of the Federal Reserve’s first rate-cutting cycle in more than four years whet investors’ risk appetite.

With a larger-than-usual move on Wednesday, the US central bank turned the page on more than a year in which borrowing costs were kept at their highest for decades to try to temper inflation.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said he did not see elevated risks of a slowdown, and policymakers projected the benchmark rate would fall again, reflected in a closely-watched tool known as a dot plot.

Megacap tech stocks gained, with Tesla and Meta posting solid gains. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed 2.51 per cent to 18,013.98 points.

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial average rose 1.26 per cent to 42,025.19 points, while the benchmark S&P 500 advanced 1.70 per cent to end the session at 5,713.64 points. Both were record-high closing levels.