Stock Market Update: Sensex Opens 300 Points Higher, Bajaj Finserve, Airtel Among Top Gainers

Sensex on Friday gained 300 points to touch 59,926.40 in the pre-opening trade session at 9.006 am while Nifty 50 was at 17,550.

After slipping for the fifth straight session on Thursday, markets opened on a positive note on Friday as Sensex surged 300 points to touch 59,926.40 in the pre-opening session at 9.06 am while the Nifty 50 was at 17,550 level.

Bajaj Finserve, Airtel, and Asian Paints were top gainers while M&M and Tata Steel were laggards in the 30 stocks listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Adani stocks extended losses on Friday as well. Adani Transmission and Adani Power fell  5 per cent. Fitch has affirmed the ‘BBB-’ rating on senior secured notes issued by the restricted group of Adani Transmission and has said its outlook is stable. The credit assessment reflects the project companies’ availability-based revenue under a supportive regulatory framework, with low technical complexity, reflected in high availability levels. It expects the operating performance of entities to remain stable.

On Thursday, the BSE Sensex closed 139.18 points lower to settle at 59,605.80. During the day, it hit a high of 59,960.04 and a low of 59,406.31. The NSE Nifty slipped 43.05 points or 0.25 per cent to end at 17,511.25.

The equity benchmark indices on Thursday declined amid concerns that the US Federal Reserve might raise interest rates further to curb inflation. Fresh foreign fund outflows and mostly weak trends in Asian markets also impacted investor sentiments, traders said, according to the PTI report. The markets witnessed highly volatile trade on the back of monthly derivatives expiry.

Meanwhile, Asian markets remained mixed on Friday opening on the back of the incoming head of Japan's central bank soothing fears of an early end to super-easy monetary policy, nudging bond yields to lower globally.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.2 per cent, heading for a weekly drop of 1.5 per cent, reported news agency Reuters.

Kazuo Ueda, who will take over as governor of the Bank of Japan (BOJ) in April, began three hours of speaking to parliament. offering markets a first glimpse of how the new-look central bank could steer an exit from ultra-low interest rates.  Chinese blue chips fell 0.4 per cent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index dropped 0.9% while Australia's resources-rich shares edged up 0.2%.

On Wall Street, stocks ended Thursday in positive territory, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.33 per cent, the S&P 500 surging 0.53 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite adding 0.72 per cent.

Investors remain cautious ahead of the release of the US personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index for January. Known as the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation measure, the index is expected to be up 4.3 per cent on a year earlier, compared with 4.4 per cent the previous month.

Overnight strong data aided by an unexpected fall in new claims for unemployment and a recovery in the fourth-quarter PCE price index, suggested some strength in the economy. The US GDP in the October to December period was up 2.7 percent, annualized, lower than the 2.9 percent increase originally reported.

The dollar index, which measures the safe-haven dollar against six peers, was hovering at 104.63, not too far from a seven-week high of 104.78.