Sensex, Nifty clinch mild gains after muted start; Wipro under pressure post-results

Domestic equity benchmarks registered mild gains after a mild start to Friday's trade amid mixed global cues. Buying interest in auto, FMCG and energy shares were offset by losses in metal and select financial counters. Among blue-chip scrips, HUL, HDFC Bank and ITC supported the headline indices the most, though losses in ICICI Bank, Titan and HCLTech limited the upside. The Sensex rose as much as 369.5 points -- or 0.5 per cent -- to 78,358.1 in mid-morning deals, while the Nifty50 climbed to as high as 24,304.6, adding 107.8 points -- or 0.4 per cent -- to its previous close.

At 10:50 am, the Sensex held on to much of its intraday gains, trading 229.4 points -- or 0.3 per cent -- higher for the day at 78,218.1. The 50-scrip gauge was up 61.5 points -- or 0.3 per cent -- at 24,258.3.

ITC, Maruti Suzuki India, Tech Mahindra, Adani Ports, NTPC, Trent, TMPV and HUL -- trading between 0.7 per cent and 2.1 per cent higher -- rose the most among the 24 gainers in the Nifty50 universe. On the flipside, HDFC Life Insurance Co, Wipro, Hindalco, SBI Life, Bajaj Finserv, Tata Steel and JSW Steel -- trading with losses of between 0.3 per cent and 3.6 per cent -- were the worst hit in the 50-scrip basket.

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The Nifty Bank -- whose 14 constituents include SBI and HDFC Bank -- rose as much as 0.4 per cent to touch 56,309.2 on the upside.

Wipro shares fell as much as 3.6 per cent to Rs 202.6 apiece on BSE, a day after the IT major posted largely in-line results with a weak guidance. The Bengaluru-based firm also announced a Rs 15,000-crore share buyback plan through the tender route.

The IT firm guided for a decline of up to 2 per cent in revenue in Q1 in constant currency terms, meeting analyst expectations. Read more on Wipro results

HDFC Life shares fell 4.0 per cent to Rs 606.2 apiece after the life insurer reported an in-line set of results.

Broader indices supported the overall gains on Dalal Street, with the Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 gauges trading 0.8-0.9 per cent higher.

Overall market breadth was extremely positive with an advance-decline ratio of 2.5:1 as 2,788 stocks rose while 1,125 fell on BSE.

Global markets

Most other major Asian markets struggled with losses, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan trading 0.8 per cent at the last count. Japan's Nikkei 225 was down 0.9 per cent, China's Shanghai Composite down 0.2 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng down 1.1 per cent and Singapore's Straits Times down 0.3 per cent.

However, Asian markets were in for weekly gains, amid growing optimism about a second round of US-Iran peace talks over the weekend that could pave the way for an end to the war.

Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow JOnes, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite barometers rose 0.2-0.4 per cent each after US President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to claim that Israel and Lebanon had established a 10-day ceasefire.