Market Wrap, Jan 2: NIFTY50 ends below record high at 26,328, SENSEX jumps 573 pts; Nifty Midcap 100 outshines, Coal India soars 7%

The Indian equity benchmark indices ended with strong gains on Friday, January 2, following a broad-based buying interest and rally in banking, auto and metal stocks. Positive global cues further boosted market investors’ confidence.

During the intraday period, both the Nifty Bank and Nifty Auto indices touched all-time high levels of 60,203.75 and 28,867.05.

With Friday’s gains, benchmark equity indices ended the week on a positive note, with the Sensex and Nifty 50 rising about 1% each. The Nifty Bank index outperformed, climbing 2% for the week, while the Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 advanced 2% and 1%, respectively.

According to exchange data, on Thursday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth ₹3,268.60 crore, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities worth ₹1,525.89 crore on a net basis.

Globally, all the Asian stocks settled higher on Friday, with Hong Kong and South Korea leading gains, while the Japan and China markets remained closed on account of the new year.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 2.68%, South Korea's KOSPI surged 2.22%, and Singapore's Straits Times ended 0.21% higher.

Wall Street remained closed for operations on Thursday.

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

As many as 3,246 stocks traded on the NSE on Friday. Out of this, 2,247 advanced and 895 stocks declined, while 104 scrips remained unchanged.

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

A total of 101 stocks hit their 52-week highs, while 50 stocks touched their one-year lows. Besides, 71 stocks hit their upper circuit limits, and 41 touched their lower circuit bands on Friday.

NSE-listed firms' market capitalisation stood at ₹479.03 lakh crore at the end of the session, adding ₹4.24 lakh crore.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, stood at 9.45 levels, climbing 2.88%.

The Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 1.01% to 61,365.90, supported by strong gains in Torrent Power (5.55%), IREDA (5.47%), and NHPC (5.2%).

Driven by Ola Electric (9.28%), JBM Auto (6.28%) and Anant Raj (6.06%), the Nifty Smallcap 100 index surged 0.72% to close at 17,832.05.

Except for Nifty FMCG (-1.19%), all the other sectoral indices ended in green. Nifty Realty took the lead among gainers, rising 1.52%, followed by Nifty PSU Bank (1.5%), Nifty Metal (1.47%), Nifty Consumer Durables (1.17%) and Nifty Auto (1.13%).

On the NIFTY50 index, 40 stocks advanced while 10 declined on Friday.

Coal India was the most contributing stock, surging 7.15%, followed by NTPC (4.56%), Hindalco Industries (3.53%), Trent (2.39%) and State Bank of India (2.12%).

On the flip side, ITC (-3.78%), Kotak Mahindra Bank (-1.26%), Nestle India (-1.13%), Shriram Finance (-0.94%) and Bajaj Auto (-0.62%) were the top laggards on the 50-share index.