Stock Market: Sensex Jumps 502 Points, Nifty Near 19,600 On Strong Cues, TCS Up 5%, IT Stocks Rally

Stock update: On the 30-share Sensex platform, TCS, TechM, Infosys, HCL, Wipro, Tata Steel emerged lead gainers. M&M, PowerGrid, Titan, Maruti, UltraCemco, Sun Pharma were among the losers

The two key equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, on Friday rallied sharply, mostly in the last one-hour of trading, led by strong IT gains. The S&P BSE Sensex closed with a gain of 502 points at 66,061. On the other hand, the NSE Nifty50 finished 151 points higher at 19,565. The domestic indices went up by 1.2 per cent this week.

On the 30-share Sensex platform, TCS, TechM, Infosys, HCL, Wipro, Tata Steel emerged lead gainers. On the downside, M&M, PowerGrid, Titan, Maruti, UltraCemco, Sun Pharma were among the losers. TCS soared 5 per cent as the Q1 earnings driven rally continued for the second straight trading session. Tech Mahindra and Infosys also vaulted 4.5 per cent each. HCL Technologies and Wipro were up around 3 per cent each.

In the broader market, the BSE Midcap index jumped 1 per cent, while the Smallcap index spiked 1.1 per cent.

The overall breadth too was fairly positive, with nearly two stocks advancing for every declining share on the BSE.

Sectorwise, the BSE IT index zoomed 4.3 per cent. The Metal and Realty indices were up over a per cent each.

Utkarsh Small Finance Bank IPO was subscribed over 100 times as of 03:30 PM on the final day of the offer period.

In the previous session on Thursday, the S&P BSE Sensex closed 165 points higher at 65,559, while the NSE Nifty50 ended with a modest gain of 29 points at 19,414.

"The controlled inflation in the US has instilled optimism among investors that a 25-bps rate hike would be adequate to stabilise the US economy. This improved prospect has contributed to the strong buying of Indian IT stocks despite muted Q1 earnings. Furthermore, the broad-based rally in the domestic market was supported by India's consecutive third-month decrease in wholesale prices, along with the positive involvement of FIIs," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Shanghai and Hong Kong ended in the green, while Tokyo settled lower. Equity markets in Europe were trading mostly with gains. The US markets ended in positive territory on Thursday.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) turned buyers on Thursday as they bought equities worth Rs 2,237.93 crore after a day's breather, according to exchange data.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.09 per cent to $81.29 a barrel.