Sensex up 100 points, Nifty opens above 12,250; Infosys, Bharti Infratel shine

Mumbai: Indian equity indices on Friday (January 10) opened with a positive start with the Sensex up 159.56 points or 0.38% at 41,611.91, while the broader Nifty up 45.50 points or 0.37% at 12,261.40.

Major gainers on the Indices were Infosys, Bharti Infratel, Kotak Mahindra Bank, TCS, HDFC Bank, and HCL Tech, while ICICI Bank, Nestle and Asian Paints were top losers.

All the sectoral indices are trading higher led by the IT, auto, pharma, metal, and bank.

The Indian rupee today opened flat at 71.21 per dollar against previous close 71.21.

On Thursday, bulls regained control on the D-Street following optimism in global markets after US President Donald Trump`s comments on the Iran conflict eased worries and improved risk appetite. The cooling off of oil prices lifted market sentiment as India imports more than 85 per cent of its requirement. 

The BSE S&P Sensex closed 634 points or 1.55 per cent higher at 41,451 while the Nifty 50 moved up by 188 points at 12,214. Except for Nifty IT, all sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the green with Nifty realty ticking up by 2.73 per cent, auto by 2.68 per cent, PSU bank by 2.41 per cent and metal by 1.43 per cent.

Meanwhile, global shares hit a record high on Friday as relief over de-escalation of US-Iranian tensions quickly prompted investors to bet on faster global growth, especially in the technology sector.

MSCI`s broadest gauge of the world`s stocks in 49 countries rose a tad to hit an all-time high and its index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.18%. Japan`s Nikkei rose 0.34% while Australian stocks rallied 0.7% to a record high. Chinese shares were little changed.

Asia`s gains followed record-setting in the pan-regional STOXX 600 index in Europe and the three major stock indexes on Wall Street. The S&P 500 gained 0.67%, with its technology sector rising more than 1%. Apple gained 2.1%, helped by news that sales of its iPhones in China in December jumped more than 18% year-on-year.

Notably, gold eased 0.3% to $1,547.8 per ounce from a seven-year high of $1,610.90 hit right after Iran`s missile attack on Wednesday.

Against the yen, the US dollar traded at 109.52 yen, having hit a two-week high of 109.58 in US trade on Thursday. The euro stood little changed at $1.1105, having fallen to $1.10915 in the US trade, its lowest in about two weeks.

(With Agency Inputs)