Sensex jumps over 800 points: What's driving today's rally?
What's the story
The Indian stock market witnessed a strong rally on Friday, with the Sensex and Nifty indices gaining over 1% each. The Sensex surged by over 800 points to an intraday high of 77,501 while the Nifty climbed over 200 points to hit a day's high of 24,036. Mid-cap stocks rose 0.85% and small-cap stocks also gained over a percent during the session.
Investor wealth
Market cap of BSE-listed companies crosses ₹450 lakh crore mark
The market capitalization of BSE-listed companies increased from ₹445 lakh crore in the last session to nearly ₹450 lakh crore. This rise has added about ₹5 lakh crore to investors' wealth in a single day. The rally was mainly driven by strong buying in banking and financial stocks, which rose 1.6% during the session and 8.2% for the week.
External factors
Asian and US markets see positive momentum
Asian markets such as South Korea's Kospi, Japan's Nikkei 225, China's SSE Composite and HongKong's Hang Seng were all trading higher. Major US stock indices also gained with the S&P 500 closing above the key psychological level of 6,800. The rupee appreciated by 10 paise to trade at ₹92.41 against the US dollar, further boosting investor sentiment in India.
Sectoral shifts
IT index falls on TCS's cautious outlook
The IT index fell by 1.5%, dragged by TCS which declined by 2%. This came after the company reported a 9.7% rise in revenue and a 12.2% increase in net profit for the March quarter. Despite this, analysts remain cautious due to macro uncertainties and softness in BFSI cloud visibility that could impact future performance.