Stock market: Sensex rises 407 pts, Nifty above 25,900; Infosys, RIL lead gainers

Domestic benchmarks Sensex and Nifty opened higher on Friday, likely to snap a four-session losing streak, as supportive global cues lifted sentiment. Asian markets advanced after Wall Street gains, aided by a softer US inflation reading. Meanwhile, investors remained cautious ahead of a potential interest rate hike by the Bank of Japan, which could trigger volatility in currency and bond markets.

At 9:15 am, the BSE Sensex rose 325.84 points, or 0.39%, to 84,807.65 after gaining nearly 407 points in early trade. The NSE Nifty climbed 95.95 points, or 0.37%, to 25,911.50, after briefly touching a high of 25,941.80.  

Among Sensex constituents, Infosys led gainers, rising 1.35% to Rs 1,648.30. Reliance Industries (RIL) rose 1.14%, while Tata Motors PV, Bharti Airtel and Trent gained 1.01%, 0.84%, and 0.72%, respectively.

Wall Street ended higher overnight as all three major indices closed the session in the green. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.14% to 47,951.85, while the S&P 500 rose 0.79% to close at 6,774.76. The tech-savvy Nasdaq Composite edged higher 1.38% to settle at 23,006.36.

Asian markets traded mostly higher on Friday. At last check, Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 1.16% to 49,568.66, while South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.58% to 4,017.51. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index edged 0.56% higher to 25,641.77.

VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Investments Limited, said that while the halt in foreign institutional investor selling over the past two sessions is a welcome development for the markets, it should not be construed as a signal of any meaningful shift in the broader market trend.

Vijayakumar noted that market direction will hinge significantly on the Bank of Japan’s interest rate decision scheduled for today. Adding, “It is almost certain that BoJ will raise rates by 25bp and, therefore, such a decision is unlikely to impact the market. What the market is looking for is the commentary from the Japanese central bank regarding future rate action in the context of inflation in Japan.” 

“If the BoJ chief sends a hawkish message indicating more rate hikes, that would impact the market since the market will fear further unwinding of the yen carry trade, triggering more FII outflows from markets like India. Therefore, watch out for the BoJ commentary. Meanwhile, cooling inflation in the US ( November core inflation has come at 2.6%, lower than the estimate of 3%) is imparting resilience to the US economy and markets. This augurs well for global equity markets as 2025 draws to a close,” Vijayakumar said.