Stock market ends with gains led by banking heavyweights

Indian stock market on Friday ended with gains led by some heavyweights like banking including ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, and Axis Bank.

During the session, market remained in positive territory but gains were capped by elevated crude oil prices and rising concerns about inflation.

Advertisement

At close, the Sensex gained 231.99 points or 0.31 per cent, to reach 75,415.35, while the Nifty rose 64.60 points or 0.27 per cent to settle at 23,719.30.

Among the sectors, Bank Nifty jumped 1.15%, while the Financial Services index rose by 1.17%. The Private Bank index clocked a gain of 1.49%, while the PSU Bank index climbed by 0.22%. Nifty Healthcare was down 1.52%, Media down by 1.47%, and Pharma down by 1.27%.

The top gainers were Trent, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, and Asian Paints while Sun Pharma, ITC, and Power Grid ended as the top losers in the index.

Brent Crude jumped more than 2% to trade above the $105 per barrel. Indian rupee jumped 63 paise to close at 95.73 per dollar.

Volatility remained elevated as India VIX rose 0.84 percent to 17.97.

Among certain key performances, Pine Labs and Paytm shares sank 3.7% and 3.6%, respectively. Max Healthcare Institute also reacted negatively to its Q4 results, declining 6.2%.

Tata Communications advanced another 3.2% while Sammaan Capital also continued its upward momentum, rising 5%.

Markets also took positive cues from the upcoming visit of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio who will be on his first official visit to India. Rubio said the United States wants to deepen energy cooperation with India and is ready to become a larger part of the country’s oil and gas basket.