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Sensex 81,028.02 +2.17%Nifty 50 25,030.35 +2.01%₹ / $ 93.89

EconomyMarkets

Sensex crosses 80,000, up 1,066 points at 2 pm as banks extend the rally

The Sensex stood at 80,375.65 and the Nifty 50 at 24,801.80 at 2 pm on Friday, with ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Yes Bank leading, even as the India VIX jumped more than 10%.

From the editorial desk · MumbaiPublished
The Bombay Stock Exchange building on Dalal Street, Mumbai (file photo)
The Bombay Stock Exchange building on Dalal Street, Mumbai (file photo)Karthikndr / Wikimedia

Key points

  1. At 2 pm the Sensex was up 1,065.64 points at 80,375.65, and the Nifty 50 up 265.20 at 24,801.80.
  2. The Sensex added about 419 points in the hour after 1 pm.
  3. The India VIX, the market's fear gauge, jumped 10.53% to 17.22.

Indian shares pushed past a milestone on Friday afternoon. At 2 pm the Sensex was up 1,065.64 points, or 1.34%, at 80,375.65, well clear of the 80,000 mark it had been chasing all morning. The Nifty 50 was up 265.20 points, or 1.08%, at 24,801.80.

The rally gathered pace after lunch. At 1 pm the Sensex had been up 646.73 points at 79,956.74; in the next hour it added about 419 points more, its strongest stretch of the day, after a flat opening at 79,371.

Banks in front

Banks did most of the lifting. Yes Bank, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank led the Nifty Bank index around 2:10 pm, with most bank shares in the green. ICICI Bank had already touched a record earlier in the day. IT companies were also higher, with the Nifty IT index up about 1%.

Not everything rose. Property shares lagged the market, and Anant Raj, Godrej Properties and Sobha were the biggest losers in the Nifty Realty index by 1:20 pm.

Nerves under the surface

The gains came with a warning sign. The India VIX, which tracks expected swings in the Nifty, jumped 10.53% to 17.22 by 1:40 pm, a sign that traders were paying more to protect themselves even as prices climbed.

That unease comes from abroad. Overnight the Nasdaq Composite fell 5.52%, its biggest one-day drop in 19 months, in a sell-off of chip and artificial intelligence stocks, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 and South Korea’s Kospi both lost more than 5% on Friday. V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Investments, has argued that the tech rout in the US could end up helping India, as foreign investors keep buying Indian shares.

Trading closes at 3:30 pm.