SENSEX, NIFTY50 gain for a third straight session led by gains in Bajaj Finance

The Indian equity benchmarks rose for a third straight session on Friday, July 31, led by gains in index heavyweight Bajaj Finance, Mahindra & Mahindra, Reliance Industries, Bajaj Finserv, Bharti Airtel, Adani Ports and Tata Steel. The SENSE rose as much as 462 points from the day's lowest level and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday high 24,429 after hitting a low of 24,300.

The SENSEX ended 166 points or 0.21% higher at 78,095 and NIFTY50 index advanced 66 points to close at 24,384.

Asian markets ended higher following a strong rally in the US markets after Microsoft posted strong results indicating that its big spending on AI is translating into profits.

The rally in Microsoft revived buying interest in other chipmakers that sent South Korea's KOSPI 18% higher. Japan's Nikkei surged 3.86%, China's Shanghai Composite index advanced 0.7% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.1%

Back home, buying was visible across board as 12 of 15 major sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended higher led by the NIFTY Auto index's 1.6% gain. NIFTY Financial Services, Media, Pharma, Oil & Gas, and PSU Bank indices also rose between 0.4% and 2%.

On the other hand, consumer durables, IT and FFMCG shares faced selling pressure.

Broader markets outperformed their larger peers as NIFTY Midcap 100 and NIFTY Smallcap 100 indices rose 0.44% each.

Among the individual shares, Hyundai shares rose as much as 9% after Tarun Garg, the company's Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, assured that Hyundai Motor India is committed to "achieve its stated guidance of 8-10% (YoY) volume growth for both domestic and exports as well as 11-14% EBITDA margin in FY27."

Aether Industries shares soared as much as 8.29% to hit a 52-week high of ₹1,614.40 after it posted a 33.24% year-on-year (YoY) surge in its consolidated net profit to ₹62.81 crore during the quarter, compared with ₹47.14 crore in the first quarter of the 2025-26 fiscal year (Q1 FY26).

Bajaj Finance was top gainer in the NIFTY50 index, the stock rose as much as 9.3% to hit a record high of ₹1,151.50 after it after its June quarter earnings surpassed analyst estimates. Bajaj Finance reported a net profit (attributable to the owners of the company) of ₹5,986 crore in the first quarter of current financial year, marking an increase of 27% from ₹4,700 crore in the same period last year.

Its net interest income rose 23% to ₹12,571 crore in April-June period from ₹10,228 crore a year earlier.

Bajaj Finserv advanced 6.37% after it reported a 12.31% increase in its consolidated profit after tax (attributable to owners of the company) to ₹3,132.35 crore in the first quarter of the current financial year.

The company had reported a consolidated net profit of ₹2,789.05 crore in the same period of the previous fiscal year.

Its revenue from operations increased 19.13% to ₹42,036.90 crore in Q1 FY27, compared to ₹35,288 crore in the corresponding period of FY26.

Jio Financial Services, Mahindra & Mahindra, Shriram Finance, Tata Motors PV, Adani Ports, Tata Steel, HDFC Life, Reliance Industries and Bajaj Auto were also among top gainers in the NIFTY50 index.

On the flipside, TCS, Eternal, Infosys, Max Healthcare, ITC, Wipro, Adani Enterprises, Tata Consumer Products, Nestle India and IndiGo were top losers in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was positive as 2,068 shares ended higher while 1,255 closed lower on the NSE.