Mumbai: The index on the screen went up. The portfolio in most demat accounts did not.
The Sensex closed 308.49 points, or 0.42%, higher at 74,459.53 on Friday, and the Nifty 50 added 116.35 points, or 0.51%, to settle at 23,053.10. It was the second straight session of gains, and it left both benchmarks up nearly 2% for the week.
Underneath, the market was lopsided. The Nifty Smallcap 100 fell 1.85% and the Nifty Midcap 100 dropped 0.93%. On the NSE, 2,511 stocks declined against 1,013 that advanced. The Bank Nifty slipped 222.70 points, or 0.41%, to 54,686.95.
Trent led the Sensex pack, rising 5.20%, after the Tata Group's retail arm reported a 25% year-on-year increase in consolidated net profit to Rs 468 crore for the September quarter on Thursday. InterGlobe Aviation gained 3.46%, Infosys 3.07% and Sun Pharma 3.42%. State Bank of India, Mahindra & Mahindra, UltraTech Cement and Tata Steel were the laggards, falling between 1% and 2%.
Nifty IT was the best-performing sectoral index, up more than 2%, with pharma and healthcare close behind. Auto, FMCG, metal, realty, PSU bank and oil and gas ended in the red.
The crude number is the one the market keeps watching. Brent jumped 2.17% to $117.4 a barrel during the session, its highest intraday level since April 30, on uncertainty over the US-Iran standoff. WTI traded around $103.
"Indian equity markets traded higher, with the Sensex and Nifty gaining around 0.6%, despite weak broader-market participation," said Vikram Kasat, chief business officer for advisory and dealing at PL Capital. "Brent crude hovering around $115 per barrel, amid escalating Middle East tensions, remains a key concern for India's import bill, inflation and currency stability."
Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Investments, attributed the rotation into IT to a move away from global AI plays, and said the fall in mid- and small-caps followed fresh reports on US-Iran tensions.
The rupee closed at 94.93 against the dollar, up 33 paise from its previous close, after opening at 95.21 and touching an intraday low of 95.28. Foreign institutional investors had sold equities worth Rs 943.60 crore on Thursday, exchange data showed.
Friday was also the heaviest day of the earnings season so far, with 213 companies scheduled to report September-quarter results. Reliance Industries and Jio Platforms were among those announcing after market hours.
The week ends with the index above 23,000 and the broader market still nursing losses — a gap that has held for most of October.