Market Wrap, April 10: SENSEX up 1%, NIFTY50 ends above 24,000; SMIDs outshine, Nifty Auto jumps 4%

Tracking positive global cues, the Indian benchmark indices ended higher on Friday, April 10, led by gains in auto and realty stocks, while investors kept a close watch on the upcoming US-Iran peace talks in Pakistan.

With Friday’s close, the benchmark indices snapped a six-week losing streak, marking their best weekly performance in over five years since February 2021. Both the SENSEX and NIFTY50 surged around 6%, while the Nifty Bank climbed 8.5%.

The broader markets also remained buoyant, with the Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 advancing about 8% each.

According to exchange data, on Thursday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth ₹1,711.19 crore, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities worth ₹955.90 crore on a net basis.

On the global front, all the other Asian markets closed in the green Friday, tracking Wall Street gains ahead of Iran-US peace talks in Pakistan.

Japan's Nikkei rose 1.86%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.57%, China's Shanghai Composite advanced 0.5%, and South Korea's KOSPI jumped 1.38% at close.

On Wall Street, the US stocks ended higher on Thursday after Israel’s prime minister authorised direct negotiations with Lebanon that eased worries that the two-week ceasefire announced late on Tuesday may have already been in trouble.

The S&P 500 index advanced 0.62%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.58%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 0.83%.

Here are the key developments of Friday's session that you need to know

As many as 3,342 stocks traded on the NSE on Friday. Out of this, 2,667 advanced and 575 stocks declined, while 100 scrips remained unchanged.

A total of 69 stocks hit their 52-week highs, while 9 stocks touched their one-year lows. Besides, 179 stocks hit their upper circuit limits, and 28 touched their lower circuit bands on Friday.

NSE-listed firms' market capitalisation stood at ₹450.34 lakh crore at the end of the session, adding ₹6.37 lakh crore to the investors’ wealth.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, stood at 18.85 levels, declining 7.72%.

The broader market outperformed the main equity indices on Friday. The Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 1.52% to 57,843.95, supported by strong gains in Lenskart (6.37%), Adani Total Gas (5.84%), and Tata Investment Corporation (5.38%).

The Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 1.65% to 16,840.10, led by a rally in Cohance Lifesciences (17.82%), Ola Electric Mobility (11.23%), and Tata Chemicals (8.38%).

Except for Nifty IT (-1.91%), all the other sectoral indices ended the session in green. Nifty Auto led the gains, soaring 2.85%, while Nifty Realty (2.08%), Nifty Private Bank (1.98%), Nifty Media (1.96%) and Nifty Consumer Durables (1.74%) were the other gainers.

On the NIFTY50 index, 43 stocks advanced while only 7 ended in red on Friday.

Asian Paints was the top contributing stock, climbing 3.81%, followed by Eicher Motors (3.75%), Bajaj Auto (3.29%), ICICI Bank (3.24%) and Mahindra & Mahindra (3.13%).

On the flip side, Coal India (-4.14%), Sun Pharma (-3.62%), Infosys (-3.02%), TCS (-2.55%), Tech Mahindra (-1.55%), HCL Technologies (-0.95%) and ONGC (-0.66%) were the only laggards on the index.