Stock Market: Sensex Rises 101 Points, Nifty Trades Above 16,600; Bank, Auto Lead

Stock update: Titan was the lead gainer, up 1.61 per cent. The other gainers were HDFC twins, ICICI Bank, Maruti, SBI, RIL, HUL, Nestle, Tata Steel, UltraCemco, Axis Bank, and Bajaj Finserv on the BSE

The key domestic equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, on Friday opened trade in the green, tracking positive global cues.

At 10.15 am, the BSE Sensex was trading 101 points higher at 55,783, while the broader NSE Nifty was at 16,639, up 34 points.

On the 30-share Sensex platform, Titan was the lead gainer, up 1.61 per cent. The other notable gainers were HDFC twins, ICICI Bank, Maruti, SBI, Reliance, HUL, Dr Reddy, Nestle, Tata Steel, UltraCemco, Axis Bank, and Bajaj Finserv. On the flipside, Infosys was the main loser, down 1.62 per cent. HCL, TechM, Wipro, NTPC, TCS, Asian Paints, Airtel, and others.

The broader markets were trading with gains. The BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices were up to 0.5 per cent higher.

On the NSE, all the 15 sector gauges were trading in the positive zone. Sub-indexes such as Nifty Bank, Nifty Auto, and Nifty Financial Services were outperforming the NSE platform by rising as much as 0.79 per cent, 0.78 per cent, and 0.74 per cent, respectively.

The overall market breadth was positive as 1,826 shares were advancing, while 630 were declining on the BSE.

In the previous session on Thursday, Sensex rose 284 points (0.51 per cent) to end at 55,682, while Nifty had moved 84 points (0.51 per cent) higher to close at 16,605.

Asian stocks were on course for their best week in months after the European Central Bank (ECB) raised rates for the first time in 11 years. The ECB raised interest rates by a bigger-than-expected 50 basis points (bps) to zero per cent overnight, its first hike in 11 years and ending a policy of negative interest rates that had been in place since 2014.

Trends on the Nifty Futures on Singapore Exchange indicated a cautious start for the domestic indices.

Meanwhile, the rupee declined 7 paise to 79.92 against the US dollar in opening trade on Friday tracking strength of the dollar in the overseas market and firm crude oil prices.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 79.90 against the US dollar, then fell to 79.92 against the greenback, registering a decline of 7 paise over the last close.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude futures advanced 1 per cent to $104.90 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors remained net buyers in the capital market on Thursday as they purchased shares worth Rs 1,799.32 crore, as per exchange data.