Sensex rises over 300 points, Nifty trades near 21,750; NHPC, Finolex Industries surge up to 8%

Indian equity benchmarks traded higher in Friday's early trade, led by gains across all sectors. The 30-share BSE Sensex pack rose 302 points or 0.42 per cent to trade at 72,150, while the NSE Nifty moved 87 points or 0.40 per cent up to trade at 21,746. Broader market (mid- and small-cap) shares were also positive as Nifty Midcap 100 climbed 0.55 per cent and small-cap gained 0.62 per cent.

On the global front, Asian markets were muted. Overnight, Wall Street overnight settled lower after resilient labour market data dampened expectations of multiple interest rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve this year.

Back home, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought Rs 1,513.41 crore of shares on a net basis during the previous session while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) offloaded Rs 1,387.36 crore of stocks, exchange data showed.

All the 15 sector gauges -- compiled by the NSE -- were trading in the green. Sub-indexes Nifty Auto, Nifty Metal and Nifty Oil & Gas were outperforming the NSE platform by rising as much as 0.58 per cent, 0.49 per cent and 0.48 per cent, respectively.

On the stock-specific front, NTPC was the top gainer in the Nifty pack as the stock jumped 2.08 per cent to trade at Rs 323.7. Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto, Bharti Airtel and LTIMindtree climbed up to 1.09 per cent.

In contrast, Nestle India, IndusInd Bank, Britannia, Axis Bank and Asian Paints were among the top laggards.

The overall market breadth was positive as 2,327 shares were advancing while 695 were declining on BSE.

On the 30-share BSE index, index heavyweights such as Infosys, ICICI Bank, TCS, L&T, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, M&M and Bajaj Finance were among the top gainers.

Also, BSE 500 stocks such as NHPC, Finolex Industries Ltd, Kalyan Jewellers, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd and CG Power surged up to 8.39 per cent. On the flipside, Max Healthcare, Chambal Fertilisers, Nestle India, Adani Total Gas and Cyient slipped up to 2.46 per cent.

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