The Indian equity benchmarks moved higher on Friday led by gains in banking shares amid positive cues from other Asian markets. The Sensex rose as much as 463 points and Nifty 50 index was trading firmly above its important psychological level of 17,850. HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, Titan, Kotak Mahindra Bank, State Bank of India and Axis Bank were among the top movers in the Sensex.
As of 9:41 am, the Sensex was up 430 points at 60,031 and Nifty 50 index advanced 132 points to 17,878.
Asian shares snapped two days of losses on Friday, climbing as investors waited to see whether U.S. jobs data due later in the day would reinforce the need for faster U.S. interest rate hikes.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.3 per cent, boosted by a 1.2 per cent gain in the Australian benchmark where bank stocks were to the fore, though Japan's Nikkei gave up early gains to slip 0.66 per cent, news agency Reuters reported.
Back home, buying was visible across the board as thirteen of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty Bank index's 1.5 per cent gain. Nifty Private Bank, PSU Bank, Financial Services, Realty, Consumer Durables and Oil & Gas indices also rose between 1-1.5 per cent.
On the other hand, select pharma and healthcare shares were witnessing selling pressure.
Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.5 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced nearly 1 per cent.
Titan was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose nearly 3 per cent to Rs 2,668 after the company informed exchanges that buoyancy in jewellery demand driven by festive purchases in October and November helped the division achieve significant revenue uplift for the quarter ended December 2021.
ONGC, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Grasim Industries, Bharat Petroleum, IndusInd Bank, Reliance Industries, Indian Oil, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Coal India, Wipro and Kotak Mahindra Bank also rose between 1-2 per cent.
On the flipside, HDFC, Dr Reddy's Labs, Cipla, Nestle and Bharti Airtel were among the notable losers in the Nifty 50 basket of shares.
The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 2,212 shares were advancing while 662 were declining on the BSE.
