SENSEX ends 266 points higher, NIFTY50 settles near 26,700 led by ITC, Kotak Bank

The Indian equity benchmarks staged a strong recovery in intraday deals to end higher on Friday, February 6, led by gains in index heavyweights like ITC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever and Reliance Industries.

The SENSEX rose as much as 687 points from the day's lowest level and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday high of 25,703.95 after hitting a low of 25,491.90 earlier in the session.

The SENSEX ended 266 points higher at 83,580 and NIFTY50 index climbed 51 points to close at 25,694.

The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) headed by Governor Sanjay Malhotra unanimously decided to keep repo rate unchanged at 5.25% and maintained its neutral policy stance at the conclusion of last monetary policy meeting of the current financial year.

In 2025, the RBI’s MPC had cut repo rate four times taking the total reduction to 125 basis points.

Governor Malhotra noted that global economy showed remarkable resilience in 2025, aided and supported by trade front-loading, a milder-than-anticipated impact of tariffs, broad fiscal stimulus and accommodative monetary policy.

Nine of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended higher led by the NIFTY FMCG index's over 2% gain. NIFTY Consumer Durables, Private Bank, Oil & Gas, Realty and Financial Services indices also rose between 0.4%-0.9%.

On the other hand, auto, IT, pharma and PSU bank shares witnessed selling pressure.

Broader markets underperformed their larger peers as NIFTY Midcap 100 index ended on a flat note while NIFTY Smallcap 100 index declined 0.3%.

Among the individual shares, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) posted its best single day gain in nearly nine months after it reported December quarter earnings post market hours on Thursday. LIC shares rose as much as 7.68%, the most since May 28, 2025, to hit an intraday high of ₹905 on the NSE. The stock was witnessing higher than usual trading activity.

LIC on Thursday reported 17.46% year-on-year (YoY) surge in its consolidated net profit to ₹12,930.44 crore in October-December period from ₹11,008.65 crore in the same period last year.

Its net premium income increased 17.76% YoY to ₹1.26 lakh crore during the quarter under review, compared to ₹1.07 lakh crore in the December quarter of the 2024-25 fiscal year (Q3FY25).

ITC was top gainer in the NIFTY50 index, the stock rose 5.2% to close at ₹326. Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bajaj Finance, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Finance, Power Grid and Titan also rose between 1%-3.3%.

On the flipside, HDFC Life, Tech Mahindra, TCS, SBI Life, Tata Motors PV, Bajaj Auto and Adani Ports were top losers in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was negative as 1,784 shares ended lower while 1,340 closed higher on the NSE.