Market Wrap, Jan 16: SENSEX rises 187 pts, NIFTY50 ends at 25,694 as Nifty IT soars over 3%; Infosys, Tech Mahindra top gainers

The Indian stock market closed in the green but off its day’s high on Friday, January 16, led by a rally in IT stocks. The strong up move in the benchmarks came on the back of stronger-than-expected December quarter earnings reported by IT heavyweight Infosys post-market hours on Wednesday.

The broader market, meanwhile, ended mixed, with the small-cap stocks ending the session in red.

Both the SENSEX and the NIFTY50 ended the week largely flat. In contrast, the Nifty Bank index climbed 1.4%, while the Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 posted modest gains of 0.2% and 0.5%, respectively.

According to exchange data, on Wednesday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth ₹4,781.24 crore, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities worth ₹5,217.28 crore on a net basis.

On the global front, Asian indices ended mixed on Friday after the artificial intelligence boom regained momentum, Reuters reported. Japan's Nikkei ended marginally lower by 0.08%, China's Shanghai Composite slipped 0.26%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.42%, while South Korea's KOSPI gained 0.89%. The Taiwan Weighted Index also closed 1.9% higher.

On Wall Street, the key benchmark indices climbed on Thursday, rebounding from back-to-back losses as chip and bank stocks rallied.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 292.81 points, or 0.60%, to 49,442.44, boosted by gains in Goldman Sachs and Nvidia. The S&P 500 rose 0.26% to 6,944.47, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.25% to 23,530.02.

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

As many as 3,271 stocks traded on the NSE on Friday. Out of this, 1,830 declined and 1,339 stocks advanced, while 102 scrips remained unchanged.

This indicated that the market breadth was in favour of declines.

A total of 65 stocks hit their 52-week highs, while 216 stocks touched their one-year lows. Besides, 80 stocks hit their upper circuit limits, and 32 touched their lower circuit bands on Friday.

NSE-listed firms' market capitalisation stood at ₹465.75 lakh crore at the end of the session.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, stood at 11.37 levels, rising 0.46%.

Driven by Federal Bank (9.68%), Oracle Financial Services Software (5.48%) and AU Small Finance Bank (4.71%), the Nifty Midcap 100 index surged 0.16% to end at 59,867.80.

The Nifty Smallcap 100 index fell 0.28% to close at 17,362.30, weighed down by HBL Engineering (-9.96%), Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals (-5.3%) and Redington (-4.06%).

Among sectors, Nifty IT was the biggest gainer, rising 3.34%,know. led by rallies in Infosys, OFSS and Tech Mahindra. Nifty PSU Bank (1.16%), Nifty Private Bank (0.45%), Nifty Realty (0.35%), and Nifty Oil & Gas (0.28%) were the other sectors that ended in green.

Nifty Pharma (-1.28%) took the lead among losers, while Nifty Consumer Durables (-1.11%), Nifty Metal (-0.53%), Nifty Auto (-0.45%) and Nifty Media (-0.35%) were the other laggards.

On the NIFTY50 index, 28 stocks declined while 22 advanced on Friday.

Infosys was the most contributing stock, soaring 5.58%, followed by Tech Mahindra (5.26%), Wipro (2.54%), HCL Technologies (2.41%) and TCS (2.34%).

On the flip side, Eternal (-3.76%), Jio Financial Services (-3.15%), Cipla (-2.54%), Hindalco Industries (-2.44%) and Asian Paints (-2.03%) were the biggest losing stocks on the 50-share index.