Mr Vishal Wagh, Research Head
On Friday Indian equity benchmarks made a slightly positive start, following overnight gains on Wall Street. Markets gained momentum to trade higher with gains of around half a percent each in early deals. Buying in all the sector indices except Energy supported the indices. In the afternoon session, Indian equity benchmarks pared some initial gains but continued to trade in green amid buying in blue-chip stocks from across various sectors. Buying in utilities, power, and basic materials stocks helped markets to trade higher. Both Sensex and Nifty are trading around 48,817 and 14,618 levels.
Most of the Asian equity benchmarks traded higher in early deals on Friday, cheered up with the firm trend in US stock indexes overnight. Wall Street got bolstered after the better than expected retail sales and weekly jobless claims data indicated that the world's biggest economy is on its steady path of recovery from the effects of the pandemic.
Amid rising COVID-19 cases in the country, Union minister Nitin Gadkari has said that India tackled the first wave of the pandemic with great resilience and came out with strong growth projections. He expressed confidence that the MSME sector will battle the second wave with the same conviction and lead India to a growth trajectory.
In Nifty 50 top gainers Wipro Ltd, Hindalco Industries Ltd, Asian Paints Ltd, Ultratech Cement Ltd and Tata Motors Ltd. The losers are Larsen & Toubro Ltd, ICICI Bank Ltd, TCS Ltd, JSW Steel Ltd and State Bank of India.