Global cues, healthy inflows lift market; energy stocks rise

 NEW DELHI: Strong global sentiment, along with healthy fund inflows amid renewed buying, pushed the Indian equity market higher on Friday. The market opened with a gap up following Thursday decline. Globally, positive news on Covid-19 vaccines' progress boosted investor sentiment, but concerns over probable no-deal Brexit capped gains.

Consequently, after making initial gains, Asian and European shares came under selling pressure. On the domestic front, Nifty too came under selling pressure due to weakness in European indices. However, a last hour buying spree aided the indices to close in the positive territory.

On Friday, foreign investors bought shares worth Rs 4,195.4 crore. Among sectors, energy, metals, realty, media and PSU bank indices rose the most, whereas pharma, IT and auto indices were losers.

The S&P BSE Sensex was trading at 46,099.01, higher by 139.13 points, or 0.30 per cent, from the previous close.

The NSE Nifty50 was trading at 13,513.85, higher by 35.55 points, or 0.26 per cent, from the previous close. "Indian benchmark equity indices ended higher on Dec 11 in a volatile session, helped by the last hour recovery after an early sell-off," said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities.

"Nifty continues to recover from intra day lows suggesting bottom fishing by traders/investors. However it also keeps facing resistance at higher levels. Nifty could continue its uptrend for the coming week with some intermittent sell-offs."

Besides, Jasani pointed out that copper, long seen as a bellwether for the global economy, is surging; oil is recovering from the worst effects of the lockdowns; and extreme weather and strong Chinese demand are driving up crop prices around the world.

Siddhartha Khemka, Head, Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services, said: "The overall trend of the market remains positive as it is showing resilience on the back of abundant liquidity, positive developments on the vaccine front and signs of economic recovery."

"The market may however, consolidate at these levels for some time given stalement in US stimulus and concerns over probable no-deal Brexit talk." (IANS)

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