Closing Bell: Sensex jumps 1016 points, Nifty up 276 points

Snapping a seven-day losing streak, Indian equity benchmarks rose sharply on Friday, with both Sensex and Nifty ending over 1% higher. The start of the day was in red, as the RBI said India’s current account deficit (CAD) in April-June was at $23.9 billion, or 2.8% of gross domestic product (GDP), much higher than the $13.4 billion or 1.5% of GDP in January-March 2022.

Further, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised the benchmark lending rate by 50 basis points to 5.90% in a bid to control inflation, which has remained above its tolerance level for the past 8 months. This is the fourth consecutive rate hike after a 40 basis points increase in May and a 50 basis point hike each in June and August.

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Markets gained traction in afternoon deals to end the trading day with huge gains. Domestic sentiments also got a boost, after RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said that the Indian economy continues to be resilient in midst of global turmoil.

The Sensex rose 1016.96 points or 1.80% to close at 57,426.92 after trading in a range of 56147.23 and 57722.63. The Nifty surged 276.25 points or 1.64% to settle at 17,094.35.

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The broader indices ended in green with the BSE Mid cap index up by 1.39% and the Small cap index up by 1.45%. The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Telecom up by 3.49%, Metal up by 2.66%, Bankex up by 2.63%, Consumer Durables up by 1.96%, and Power up by 1.94%, while Oil & Gas down by 0.01% was the only losing index on BSE.

Top gainers from the Sensex pack were Bharti Airtel up by 4.49%, IndusInd Bank 3.78%, Bajaj Finance 3.28%, Kotak Mahindra 3.22%, Titan Company 2.95%, HDFC Bank 2.93%, Bajaj Finserv 2.63%, Tata Steel 2.53%, Maruti Suzuki 2.39%, and Reliance 2.25%.

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Among the laggards were Asian Paints down by 1.26%, Dr Reddys Labs 0.58%, ITC 0.32%, Tech Mahindra 0.23% and Hindustan Unilever 0.18%.

Indian rupee closed 50 paise higher at 81.35 per dollar against the previous close of 81.85.

Asian markets settled mostly lower with the Shanghai Composite down by 0.55%, the Nikkei 225 down by 1.83%, and KOSPI Composite down by 0.71%.

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European markets were trading higher during the mid-session deals.

According to stock exchange data, foreign institutional investors sold a net Rs 35.99 billion ($441.7 million) worth of equities on Thursday.