MUMBAI — Indian benchmark equity indices staged a sharp comeback in early trading on Friday, snapping a four-day losing streak as strong gains across Asian markets and overnight strength on Wall Street bolstered investor sentiment.

The 30-share BSE Sensex surged 531.88 points, or 0.70 percent, to reach 76,684.74 during morning trade. Concurrently, the broader 50-share NSE Nifty advanced 78.25 points, or 0.33 percent, trading around the 23,951.70 mark.

Key Market Gainers and Laggards

A broad-based buying trend across major heavyweights anchored the morning rally. Leading the gains among Sensex constituents were financial and index heavyweights, including:

  • Top Gainers: Bajaj Finserv, Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL), IndiGo, Trent, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), Infosys, Titan, Adani Ports, UltraTech Cement, Bajaj Finance, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Bank, and State Bank of India (SBI).

  • Laggards: A few frontline stocks bucked the positive trend, with Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Asian Paints, and Eternal trading in the red.

Tailwinds from Asian and Global Markets

The resurgence in Indian equities followed widespread gains across Asian financial hubs:

  • Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rallied 2 percent.

  • South Korea’s KOSPI gained 1.3 percent.

  • Japan’s Nikkei 225 advanced 1.11 percent.

  • China’s Shanghai Composite traded up 0.35 percent.

The optimism in Asia was largely fueled by Wall Street's performance on Thursday, where main US indices closed more than 1 percent higher, offering strong positive momentum to global traders.

Institutional Activity and Crude Oil Watch

Despite the market's recovery, crude oil prices edged higher, presenting a potential headwind for import-dependent economies like India. Global benchmark Brent crude rose 0.48 percent to $95.98 per barrel in morning trade.

Institutional trading figures showed contrasting moves between foreign and domestic players on Thursday:

  • Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs): Continued their selling spree, offloading equities net worth ₹2,345.87 crore.

  • Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs): Softer FII sentiment was offset by aggressive domestic buying, as DIIs absorbed equities worth a net ₹4,977.46 crore, keeping domestic liquidity supportive.

Previous Session Recap

On Thursday, Indian equities had closed lower for the fourth consecutive session amid sustained foreign capital outflows and volatile crude prices. The Sensex had tumbled 417.49 points to settle at 76,152.86, while the Nifty slipped 41 points to end at 23,873.45 before Friday’s strong morning rebound.