Sensex Rises 485 Points; Nifty Tops 25,700

Indian shares ended higher on Friday as investor sentiment was boosted ahead of Muhurat trading and Dhanteras buying.

Price action in leading stocks indicating short covering, fresh foreign fund inflows and renewed optimism around corporate earnings recovery helped offset weakness in the IT space after second-quarter earnings from Infosys and Wipro raised margin concerns.

After a weak start, the benchmark BSE Sensex gained momentum to end the session up 484.53 points, or 0.58 percent, at 83,952.19.

The broader NSE Nifty index closed up 124.55 points, or 0.49 percent, at 25,709.85 while the BSE mid-cap and small-cap indexes dropped 0.4 percent and half a percent, respectively.

The market breadth was weak on the BSE, with 2,413 shares declining while 1,746 shares advanced and 167 shares closed unchanged.

Asian Paints soared 4.2 percent, extending its rally to a third consecutive session as oil extended losses and headed for a weekly loss of around 3 percent.

Hindustan Unilever, ITC, Bharti Airtel and Mahindra & Mahindra all rose around 2 percent.

Among those that declined, Tata Steel, Tech Mahindra, Eternal, HCL Technologies and Infosys fell 1-2 percent.

Globally, Asian stocks ended deep in the red as heightened concerns over U.S. banks’ loan portfolios added to worries about the ongoing U.S. government shutdown and escalating Sino-U.S. trade tensions.

European markets opened on a weak note, with banks declining sharply after U.S.-based regional lenders, Zions Bancorp and Western Alliance Bancorp, disclosed that they were exposed to alleged fraud by borrowers, spreading jitters about credit market turmoil.

The dollar extended slide and was poised for its biggest weekly drop in over three months after a Federal Reserve official indicated he would vote for another interest-rate cut later this month.

Gold extended a record-breaking rally and was eyeing its best weekly performance in 17 years as a result of fears about credit quality in the U.S. economy, heightened U.S.-China frictions, concerns about the U.S. government shutdown and fears of an AI bubble.

Spot gold traded up 0.3 percent at $4,337.50 an ounce in European trade after hitting a new peak of $4,379.29 earlier.

Oil prices fell over 1 percent and were on course for a third weekly decline due to mounting concerns over a significant supply glut in the oil market and ongoing U.S.-China tensions.

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