Sensex rises over 100 points, Nifty tops 20,950; KIOCL, MMTC & Adani Total Gas jump up to 9%

Indian equity benchmarks traded higher in Friday's early trade, ahead of the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) monetary policy decision. The domestic indices were up led by gains in consumer, technology and energy stocks. The 30-share BSE Sensex pack rose 129 points or 0.19 per cent to trade at 69,651, while the NSE Nifty moved 51 points or 0.24 per cent up to trade at 20,952. Broader market (mid- and small-cap) shares were also positive as Nifty Midcap 100 climbed 0.54 per cent and small-cap gained 0.29 per cent.

The Reserve Bank is expected to stand pat on key rates for a fifth consecutive meeting. The central bank's rate decision will be announced at 10 am.

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On the global front, Asian markets were mostly up. Overnight, Wall Street equities closed higher.

Back home, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold Indian shares worth Rs 1,564 crore on a net basis during the previous session while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) offloaded shares worth Rs 9.66 crore, according to provisional data from the NSE.

14 out of the 15 sector gauges -- compiled by the NSE -- were trading in the green. Sub-indexes Nifty FMCG, Nifty Consumer Durables, Nifty IT and Nifty Oil & Gas were outperforming the NSE platform by rising as much as 0.56 per cent, 0.35 per cent, 0.45 per cent and 0.54 per cent per cent, respectively. However, PSU Bank shed 0.02 per cent.

On the stock-specific front, JSW Steel was the top gainer in the Nifty pack as the stock jumped 3.16 per cent to trade at Rs 845. NTPC, Hindalco, HCL Tech and UPL gained up to 1.55 per cent.

In contrast, Bajaj Finance, Bharti Airtel, Dr Reddy's, Maruti and Divi's Labs were among the top laggards.

The overall market breadth was positive as 2,131 shares were advancing while 836 were declining on BSE.

On the 30-share BSE index, index heavyweights such as HDFC Bank, Larsen & Toubro, Infosys and HCL Tech were among the top gainers.

Also, Edelweiss Financial Services, Schneider Electric Infrastructure and Indiabulls Real Estate surged up to 10.06 per cent. On the flipside, Praj Industries, Renuka, Bajaj Hindusthan, NDTV and Dwarikesh Sugar Industries slipped up to 5.85 per cent.

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