Nifty and Sensex maintain positive bias, Broader markets record fresh all-time high

In the afternoon session on Friday, Indian equity markets recovered from their lower levels and were seen trading near their all-time high levels. The Sensex was trading up by 91 points or 0.12% at 76,900, while the NIFTY50 index rose by 48 points or 0.20% to trade at 24,446. The Bank Nifty is seen outperforming with gains of 0.33% trading above the 50,000 mark. India VIX drops extended its downfall and slipped below 13-mark.

Wholesale inflation in India, measured using the Wholesale Price Index, rose to 2.61% in the month of May as against 1.26% in April 2023, government data showed on Friday. It was primarily driven by an increase in prices of food articles, fuel and power and manufactured products.

The top gainers and losers in the NIFTY50 Index are as follows: Adani Ports (+2.89%), M&M (+2.28%), Shriram Finance (+1.87%), Grasim (+1.68%), and Bajaj Auto (+1.13%). On the flip side, the top losers mostly belong to the IT pack such as HCL Tech (-1.12%), TCS (-0.98%), Wipro (-0.91%), Tech Mahindra (-0.80%), and NTPC (-0.64%).

The majority of the sectors were seen trading in green barring Nifty IT (-0.72%) and Nifty Media (-0.08%). Top gainers were Nifty Auto (+0.96%), Nifty Metal (+0.69) and Nifty PSU Bank (+0.57%). The Nifty Auto index hit a fresh high on Friday and in 2024, the index is up about 38%.

The broader markets were seen outperforming the frontline indices. The Nifty Midcap 100 and Smallcap 100 index gained 0.65% and 0.84%, respectively. Both the broader indices have scaled to record-high levels. With outperformance by broader markets, the market breadth is in favour of advances with 1,426 stocks seen advancing and 695 stocks seen declining.

On Wall Street, Dow Jones futures were trading flat at 38,665 down by 0.03%.

In the afternoon session, some trending stocks were Vodafone Idea, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Ambuja Cement

Vodafone Idea stock increased by about 1% on Friday after the company's board approved raising ₹2,458 crore by issuing preferential shares. They plan to issue 166 crore shares with a face value of ₹10 each to Nokia Solutions Ltd and Ericsson India Ltd in one or more tranches to settle part of the outstanding dues.

Shares of Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd rose 2.65% to ₹2,941, the highest level since its listing. The stock was among the top-performing stocks from the auto index on Friday. In 2024, the stock gained about 70%.

Shares of Ambuja Cements Ltd hit a record high on Friday after announcing to acquire Penna Cement Industries Ltd for ₹10,422 crore. The company has entered a binding agreement to buy 100% of Penna Cement, with the deal expected to close in three to four months. Ambuja Cements' stock has risen about 30% in 2024.