The Indian equity benchmarks surged to fresh two-month highs on Friday paced by gains in ITC and Axis Bank after both the companies reported strong September quarter earnings post market hours on Thursday. The Sensex rose as much as 347 points and Nifty 50 index reclaimed its important psychological level of 17,650 after a gap of over two months defying weak trend in global markets.
As of 9:32 am, the Sensex was up 276 points at 59,478 and Nifty 50 index advanced 74 points to 17,638.
Most of the Asian markets were trading lower with Japan's Nikkei down 0.23 per cent, South Korea's KOSPI fell 0.21 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined 0.41 per cent and Taiwan Weighted fell 0.2 per cent.
Stocks on Wall Street lost ground again Thursday, though the major indexes remained on pace for a weekly gain after a strong two-day rally earlier this week.
Back home, Axis Bank was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose nearly 5 per cent to Rs 866 after it reported a 66.29 per cent jump in its consolidated net profit for September quarter at Rs 5,625.25 crore, driven by a substantial decrease in bad loan provisions and margin expansion.
On a standalone basis, the third largest private sector lender reported a 70 per cent increase in its profit after tax for the July-September period at Rs 5,329.77 crore.
The core net interest income rose 31 per cent to Rs 10,360 crore on the back of a 14 per cent growth in assets and a 0.57 per cent expansion in the net interest margin at 3.96 per cent.
ITC rose nearly 1 per cent to hit fresh 52-week high of Rs 354 after it reported a 24.08 per cent increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 4,670.32 crore in the second quarter of FY23, led by a strong performance across segments including cigarettes and agri business.
The company had posted a net profit of Rs 3,763.73 crore during the July-September quarter of the previous fiscal, it said in a regulatory filing.
Titan, Mahindra & Mahindra, Ultratech Cement, HDFC Life, SBI Life, State Bank of India, Hindustan Unilever and Grasim also rose between 1-2 per cent.
On the flipside, Divi's Labs, Bajaj Finance, UPL, JSW Steel, Coal India, Asian Paints and Tech Mahindra were among the losers.
Thirteen of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty Bank index's 1 per cent gain. Nifty Auto, Financial Services, FMCG, PSU Bank, Private Bank and Consumer Durable indices also rose between 0.5-1 per cent each.
On the other hand, select IT and metal stocks were facing selling pressure.
Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.3 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.5 per cent.
The overall market breadth was positive as 1,759 shares were advancing while 775 were declining on the BSE.
