Sensex, Nifty Register Longest Stretch Of Weekly Gains In Nearly Seven Months: Market Wrap

The Indian benchmark indices recovered from a two-day decline to end sharply higher on Friday as information technology stocks soared after Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. surprised the market with its quarterly earnings.

The NSE Nifty 50 closed 186.20 points or 0.77%, higher at 24,502.15 and the S&P BSE Sensex ended 622.00 points or 0.78%, up at 80,519.34. On a weekly basis, the benchmarks have recorded the best stretch of gains in seven months.

During the day, the Nifty rose as much as 1.14% to an all-time high of 24,592.20, and the Sensex jumped 1.25% to a record high of 80,893.51.

"Multiple tailwinds led the market to come out of its range-bound trajectory. The strong result from the IT bellwether and a drop in US inflation to a one-year low added optimism to the market," Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Financial Services, said.

The chances of a rate cut in September are inching higher, which is evident in the fall of the dollar index. IT will be in the limelight due to the good start to earnings and outlook, according to Nair. "We expect stock-specific moves to gain traction due to the ongoing earnings season and upcoming budget."

The Indian benchmarks rose for six straight weeks, marking the best weekly winning streak since Dec. 11, 2023. The Nifty rose 0.73%, and the Sensex rose 0.65%.

TCS, Infosys Ltd., Reliance Industries Ltd., Axis Bank Ltd. and HCL Technologies Ltd. led the gains in the Nifty.

ICICI Bank Ltd., Bharti Airtel Ltd., Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd., Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. and Asian Paints Ltd. weighed on the index.

This week, six advanced and as many declined out of 12 sectoral indices on the NSE. The Nifty FMCG emerged as the top performer, followed by IT. Metal the led losses.

The broader markets underperformed the benchmark indices, as the BSE MidCap and the SmallCap ended 0.22% and 0.13% down, respectively.

On the BSE, nine sectors rose, and 11 sectors declined. The BSE IT rose the most and Realty fell the most.

The market breadth was skewed in favour of the sellers as 2,233 stocks declined, 1,700 advanced and 103 remained unchanged on the BSE.