Indian stocks made slight gains on Friday, with positive international indicators balancing out concerns over increasing oil prices and uncertainty surrounding the Lok Sabha elections.
Global sentiment was positive due to new indications of a relaxed U.S. labor market, which maintained the expectation of Federal Reserve interest rate cuts. Additional measures to support the struggling property market in China, the Bank of England's cautious rate decision on Thursday, and stronger than anticipated U.K. GDP growth data released earlier in the day also heightened investors' willingness to engage in riskier investments.
Following a tough previous session due to heavy selling pressure, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex ended up by 260.30 points, which is a 0.36% increase, closing at a total of 72,664.47. The broader NSE Nifty index also saw a rise, closing up by 97.70 points or 0.44%, totaling 22,055.20.
Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) saw an impressive surge of 4.5%, leading the market’s gains after the state-owned oil marketing company announced a bonus issue on a 1:1 ratio. Other significant gainers included Eicher Motors, Hero MotoCorp, NTPC and Power Grid Corporation, all of which rose by over 2%.
On the other hand, IT stocks witnessed a fall, with Infosys, LTIMindTree and TCS dropping by 1 to 2%. Pharmaceutical company Cipla saw its value fall by 1.4%, and Kotak Mahindra Bank, a private sector lender, saw a loss of 1.2%.
