Stock Market: Sensex Rises 200 Points, Nifty At 17,400 After RBI Raises Repo Rate By 50 Bps

Stock update: UltraTech Cement, Bharti Airtel, Larsen & Toubro, Wipro, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, and Titan were the major gainers on the BSE

Sensex and Nifty, the two key equity benchmarks, on Friday started trade in the green Friday in tandem with largely firm Asian markets after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) hiked repo rates by 50 basis points (bps) to 5.4 per cent. With this rate-hike, the central bank has raised interest rates by 140 bps so far.

At 10.45 am, the BSE Sensex rose 196 points to 58,494, while the broader NSE Nifty advanced 54 points to 17,436.

Among the 30-share Sensex platform, UltraTech Cement, Bharti Airtel, Larsen & Toubro, Wipro, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, and Titan were the major gainers. On the flip side, Reliance Industries, Maruti Suzuki India, IndusInd Bank, and HDFC were the laggards.

On NSE,  Nifty Bank and Nifty Realty gain up to 0.4 per cent, while Nifty Auto was down 0.1 per cent.

On the BSE, 24 scrips are advancing, while six are declining on the 30-share BSE benchmark on Friday. 

In the previous session on Thursday, the BSE Sensex ended 51 points (0.09 per cent) lower at 58,298, while the Nifty dipped 6 points (0.04 per cent) to settle at 17,382.

"The momentum in the market now is influenced by global cues and strong FII buying... The decline in Brent crude to $94 is positive for India's macros and the dip in dollar index to below 106 again augur well for capital flows to India," said V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services. 

In Asian market, Seoul, Shanghai, and Tokyo were trading in the green, while Hong Kong quoted lower. The US markets had ended on a mixed note on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the rupee appreciated 46 paise to 78.94 against the US dollar in early trade on Friday.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 79.15 against the American dollar, then touched 78.94, registering a gain of 46 paise over the last close.

On Thursday, the rupee depreciated by 25 paise to close at 79.40 against the dollar.

International oil benchmark Brent crude went higher by 0.15 per cent to $94.26 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors remained net buyers in the capital markets as they bought shares worth Rs 1,474.77 crore on Thursday, as per exchange data.