Equity benchmark Sensex rose nearly 113 points in early trading on Friday, trailing gains in index majors HDFC Bank, Tata Steel and Kotak Mahindra Bank as a sharp drop in global crude oil prices and foreign fund inflows boosted investor sentiment .
The BSE barometer was trading 112.71 points higher at 58,681.22. The broader NSE Nifty rose 33.35 points to 17,498.10.
Among the pack of 30 shares, NTPC, Power Grid, Tata Steel, Mahindra & Mahindra, HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank were among the leaders.
Titan, Infosys, ICICI Bank and Nestle India, on the other hand, were the big laggards.
On Thursday, the 30-stock BSE benchmark fell 115.48 points or 0.20% to 58,568.51. The Nifty was down 33.50 points, or 0.19%, to reach 17,464.75.
Elsewhere in Asia, stocks in Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong were lower during mid-session deals, while Shanghai was in the green.
Stocks in the US ended the overnight session on a negative note.
Meanwhile, the international oil benchmark Brent crude fell 4.88% to $107.91 a barrel.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained buyers as they bought shares worth ₹3,088.73 crore on Thursday, according to stock market data.
For 2021-2022, the BSE Sensex rose 9,059.36 points, or 18.29%, while the Nifty rose 2,774.05 points, or 18.88%.
“As the new financial year begins, markets are in uncertain territory. Globally, the main headwinds for equity markets are declining liquidity, continued high inflation in the US and an increasingly aggressive Fed. On the positive side, negative real returns from fixed income, which is driving the growing group of private investors to put more money into equities.
“This strong new trend, which is very noticeable in India, has the potential to keep markets resilient even amid the uncertainty caused by the war in Ukraine,” said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
The government released a slew of recent macroeconomic data on Thursday, pointing to the country’s current economic scenario.
Production from eight infrastructure sectors grew 5.8 percent in February, the strongest growth in the past four months thanks to better production from coal, natural gas, refinery products and cement industries, according to official data.
India’s current account deficit widened to $23 billion or 2.7% of GDP in the December quarter, according to the Reserve Bank.
The Union government aims to raise 8.45 lakh crore in the first half of 2022-23 through loans to finance the income gap to revive the economy, the finance ministry said Thursday.
The Centre’s budget deficit stood at 82.7% of the full year budget target at the end of February, mainly due to higher spending.
The government on Thursday kept rates unchanged for small savings schemes, including PPF and NSC, for the first quarter of 2022-2023 amid rising inflation.
Investor net worth rose more than ₹59.75 lakh crore in fiscal 2021-22, helped by a largely buoyant trend in domestic equities, with benchmark index Sensex rising more than 18% during the period.
Sensex braved a lot of headwinds in the latter part of the current fiscal year and closed the 2021-22 fiscal year with a profit of 9,059.36 points or 18.29%.