Indian benchmark indices Nifty and Sensex on Friday surged over 1.5% each led by strong buying in heavyweight Reliance Industries, Infosys, ICICI Bank, and TCS. Shares of Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank and Infosys alone contributed 50% to Nifty’s move on Friday.
“Indian markets played a catch-up rally with global markets, which had witnessed two consecutive days of the strong move, while Indian markets were closed yesterday due to a holiday. Though we have seen a decent rally in the markets this week, we believe that markets may remain volatile in the near term, as the banking crisis in US and Europe has not yet stabilized completely,” said Naveen Kulkarni of Axis Securities.
With Friday’s gains, the Nifty also ended the month of March with gains, breaking the losing streak of three straight months since December. The Sensex on Friday ended higher by 1,031 points at 58,991, while the Nifty gained 279 points to close at 17,359.
Nifty Bank on Friday surged over 700 points intraday and ended the session at 40,608. The run on Friday took the investor wealth higher by Rs 3.5 lakh crore as the BSE market capitalisation increased from Rs 254.71 lakh crore to Rs 258.33 lakh crore.
Sectorally, Nifty IT on Friday gained over 2.5% led by gains in Infosys, TCS, Coforge, Mphasis, etc. However, the IT index had fell over 2000 points ever since the banking crisis in US and Europe hit the market, taking investors off-guard.
More than 2,500 stocks advanced on the BSE, while 950 stocks declined on Friday.