EconomyMarkets
Sensex up 647 points at 1 pm as India stands apart from Asia's chip rout
Private banks and IT companies carried the Sensex to 79,956.74 and the Nifty 50 to 24,678.55 by 1 pm on Friday, while the rupee rose 40 paise to a seven-month high.
Key points
- At 1 pm the Sensex was up 646.73 points at 79,956.74, and the Nifty 50 up 141.95 points at 24,678.55.
- The rupee rose 40 paise to 94.066 against the dollar, its strongest in more than seven months.
- ICICI Bank hit a record ₹1,526.35 as private banks led the gains.
Indian shares climbed through Friday’s session even as markets across Asia fell sharply. At 1 pm the Sensex was up 646.73 points, or 0.82%, at 79,956.74, and the Nifty 50 was up 141.95 points, or 0.58%, at 24,678.55.
The day had started quietly. The Sensex opened at 79,371, just above Thursday’s close of 79,310.01, while the Nifty 50 opened slightly lower. Buyers kept coming in through the morning: by noon the Sensex was up 450.38 points at 79,760.39, and in the next hour it added almost 200 points more, closing in on the 80,000 mark.
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Thu close | 79,310.01 |
| Open | 79,371.00 |
| 12 pm | 79,760.39 |
| 1 pm | 79,956.74 |
Banks and IT carry the market
Private banks were the strongest group of the day, alongside IT companies. ICICI Bank rose 2% to a record ₹1,526.35 around 12:30 pm, taking its gain over four sessions to 10%. Mahindra & Mahindra rose about 5% for a fifth straight day of gains after its September-quarter results, and Sai Life Sciences jumped as much as 10.3% to a record ₹1,775.
Results also hurt some companies. 3M India fell 5.7% to a 52-week low of ₹27,655 after its quarterly profit dropped 17.17%, and Godrej Agrovet slid 5.6% to ₹561.25 after its operating margin narrowed.
Asia in the red
The picture was very different elsewhere. Overnight, the Nasdaq 100 fell 6.4% in a sell-off of chip and artificial intelligence stocks. In the morning Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 5.27%, and South Korea’s Kospi fell as much as 8.8%, setting off a circuit breaker.
“The bloodbath in the US markets impacted most other markets today, but India was least impacted,” said V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Investments. “This tech rout, particularly the sharp deceleration in AI trade will turn out to be beneficial for India,” he said.
The rupee joined the rally. It strengthened 40 paise to 94.066 against the dollar by 12:10 pm, from Thursday’s close of 94.47, its strongest level in more than seven months.