Trading higher after a volatile early session on Friday, benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty found footing due to sustained foreign fund inflows and moderate crude oil prices that fostered market optimism, beginning with the 30-share BSE Sensex up 33 points at 79,343.06 and the 50-share NSE Nifty down 52.95 points at 24,477.40, before momentum picked up to push the Sensex higher by 443.87 points to 79,760.10 and the Nifty up 81 points to 24,612.85. Within the Sensex pack, Mahindra & Mahindra rallied over 4 per cent following its Thursday announcement of a 25 per cent increase in second-quarter consolidated profit after tax to Rs 4,587.88 crore backed by strong auto revenues despite West Asian commodity headwinds, accompanied by gainers like Titan, HCL Tech, TCS, Infosys, and Bharti Airtel, whereas Asian Paints, Power Grid, Bajaj Finance, and Bharat Electronics faced losses. International oil benchmark Brent crude traded up 2.35 per cent at USD 100.6 per barrel, while exchange figures showed FIIs purchased equities worth Rs 14,974.68 crore on Thursday. Meanwhile, major Asian indices such as South Korea’s Kospi, Japan’s Nikkei 225, Shanghai’s SSE Composite, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng traded considerably lower, mirroring Wall Street’s sharp overnight slump on Thursday where the Nasdaq Composite plunged 5.52 per cent, S&P 500 fell 4.36 per cent, and Dow Jones declined 3.44 per cent. V K Vijayakumar of Geojit Investments Limited pointed out that while the US market bloodbath impacts global trading, India remains the least vulnerable, highlighting that the tech and AI trade deceleration could benefit India and that continuous FII buying of Rs 35,781 crore over the past five sessions will keep domestic markets resilient despite DII profit booking. The positive momentum builds upon Thursday’s massive surge where Sensex rocketed 2,008.61 points (2.60 per cent) to close at 79,310.01 and Nifty jumped 576 points (2.40 per cent) to 24,536.60, capping a six-session winning streak totaling 6,063.98 points (8.27 per cent) for Sensex and 1,837.75 points (8 per cent) for Nifty. Enrich Money CEO Ponmudi R added that global equities experienced heavy selling pressure due to a broad-based unwinding of AI trades and semiconductor losses on Wall Street, driving S&P 500 and Nasdaq into correction zones and triggering steep drops across Asian indexes like Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropping over 5 per cent and South Korea’s Kospi shedding over 6 per cent.
