Sensex jumped 534 points to 77,165, while Nifty 50 gained over 172 points to 23,947, as seen at 9.18 am on Friday. The sharp surge added more than Rs 4 lakh crore to the total market capitalisation of all companies listed on BSE, pulling it up to Rs 449 lakh crore.
Bajaj Finserv, Axis Bank, Asian Paints, Power Grid, Bajaj Finance, ICICI Bank and Bharat Electronics (BEL) shares were the top gainers on Sensex, jumping nearly 2% each. Bucking the trend, IT stocks like TCS, HCL Tech, Infosys and TechMahindra dropped up to 2% after TCS’s Q4 earnings. Sun Pharma shares, however, were the top losers, tumbling nearly 4%.
As India Vix dropped more than 5% to 19.38, small and midcap indices on NSE gained more than 1% each. Among the sectoral indices, Nifty Auto and Nifty PSU Bank gained more than 1.5%, while Nifty IT declined over 1%. Around 2,301 stocks advanced on NSE, while 226 declined and 42 remained unchanged.
Here are the key factors pushing markets up today:
1) Iran-US ceasefire hopes
All eyes are now on talks in Pakistan this weekend, as representatives from the United States and Iran meet to solidify the deal to end hostilities. While Iran and US finally agreed to a brief ceasefire brokered by Pakistan, Israel continued its parallel war against the Iran-aligned militia Hezbollah in Lebanon. Iran accused both Israel and US of violating the conditions of the ceasefire agreement, and said that proceeding with peace talks would be “unreasonable”. However, Israel has now agreed to hold talks with Lebanon, sparking optimism around the much-awaited ceasefire talks finally taking place.
However, some caution is still warranted. US President Donald Trump on Thursday accused Iran of doing a “very poor job” of allowing oil through the Strait of Hormuz and of breaching the terms of their two-week ceasefire agreement.
In a barrage of social media posts that sparked fresh fears for the shaky truce, Trump also warned Iran against imposing a toll for ships passing through the crucial waterway. “Iran is doing a very poor job, dishonorable some would say, of allowing Oil to go through the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
2) Oil prices below $100
Oil prices remained slightly up in the green, but still below the crucial $100 per barrel mark. Brent crude futures were hovering near $97, while WTI Crude was at around $98 per barrel on Friday morning.
Oil prices crossed the crucial $100 mark in March after the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, marking the first time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and have sustained for the majority of the time over that level since then.
3) Global markets
Global markets broadly remained in the green, with Japan’s Nikkei gaining nearly 1.6%, South Korea’s Kospi jumping around 1.8% and China’s Shanghai Composite rising nearly 1%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was also up nearly 1% on Friday morning.
Wall Street had closed in the green yesterday, as signs of ongoing negotiations toward a peaceful resolution to the six-week Middle East conflict helped ease worries over the fragile US-Iran truce. Nasdaq, S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial average gained up to 0.65%. Dow Jones futures are however trading in the red with marginal losses.
European markets closed in the red on Thursday, with Germany’s DAX dropping more than 1%. France’s CAC and UK’s FTSE were down marginally.
MORE TO COME…