IT's not so bad: Dalal Street indices soar to fresh highs
information technology shares as investors judged the third-quarter earnings of sector leaders-TCS and Infosys-weren't as adverse as expected. The optimism inspired markets to overlook the escalating tensions in the Red Sea, which caused a jump in oil prices to $80 a barrel, and a hotter US consumer inflation report in December.
The BSE Sensex gained 847.27 points, or 1.2%, to close at 72,568.45, off the record high of 72,720.96.
The NSE Nifty was up 247.35 points, or 1.14%, to close at 21,894.55 after touching an all-time high of 21,928.25.
The Nifty IT index jumped 5.1% with Infosys soaring 8% and TCS rising 3.9% after their December quarter results and the associated commentary kept hopes alive that the environment may not deteriorate further.
«The numbers were nothing stellar but sometimes no bad news is also well received by the markets with loud applause,» said Aamar Deo Singh, head of advisory at brokerage AngelOne.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net ₹340.05 crore on Friday. Domestic institutions were buyers to the tune of ₹2,911.19 crore.
Elsewhere in Asia, China lost 0.16%, Hong Kong fell 0.35%, South Korea was down 0.6% and Taiwan slipped 0.2% on Friday, mirroring the marginally lower closing on Wall Street after the US consumer price index advanced 0.3% in December and 3.4% from a year ago against estimates of 0.2% and 3.2%, respectively.
Fear Gauge up
This coupled with higher-than-expected jobs data for December released last week slightly dimmed expectations of early interest rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve, a key trigger for the market rally in the past few weeks.
