The Indian equity benchmarks moved higher on Friday led by gains in index heavyweights like HDFC Bank, Infosys, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, Titan and Hindustan Unilever. The Sensex rose as much as 547 points and Nifty 50 index reclaimed its important psychological level of 17,600 amid positive global cues.
As of 9:45 am, the Sensex was up 348 points at 59,122 and Nifty 50 index rose 109 points to 17,631.
Asian stock markets followed Wall Street higher on Friday ahead of a speech by the Federal Reserve chair that investors hoped would shed light on plans for more interest rate hikes.
Most of the Asian markets were trading higher with Japan's Nikkei up 0.92 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.69 per cent and Taiwan Weighted advanced 0.70 per cent.
Stocks closed higher on Wall Street, clawing back more of their recent losses, as the countdown clicks closer to zero for a highly anticipated speech about interest rates.
The S&P 500 rose 1.4 per cent Thursday. Stocks have wavered between gains and losses since tumbling Monday to their worst day in months, as traders hold off on making big moves overall.
Wall Street’s focus is on an economic summit at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, which has been the setting for market-defining announcements by the Federal Reserve in past years. The Fed’s chair is scheduled to speak Friday morning.
Back home, buying was visible across the board as all the 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty Metal index's over 2 per cent gain. Nifty Auto, PSU Bank, IT, Consumer Durables and Financial Services also rose between 0.5-1 per cent.
Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.83 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.7 per cent.
Syrma SGS Technology made a strong listing on the stock exchanges on Friday. The stock jumped as much as 31 per cent from issue price to hit an intraday high of Rs 295.
Tata Steel was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose nearly 3 per cent to Rs 109. Titan, JSW Steel, Hindalco, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors, Coal India, SBI Life, Tech Mahindra, Sun Pharma and Hero MotoCorp also rose between 1-2.6 per cent.
On the flipside, Eicher Motors, Bharti Airtel, IndusInd Bank, Asian Paints, Reliance Industries, Shree Cements, ICICI Bank, Britannia Industries and HDFC were among the losers.
The overall market breadth was positive as 2,096 shares were advancing while 1,029 were declining on the BSE.
