Stock market today: Indian equity markets moved up on Friday, following the positive trend in global markets. The BSE Sensex gained 515 points while the Nifty50 rose 151 points to trade above 22,100. BSE Sensex ended the day at 72,664.47, up 260 points or 0.36%. Nifty50 closed the trading day at 22,055.20, up 98 points or 0.44%.
V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, attributed the sustained selling by FIIs to India's underperformance compared to China and Hong Kong.
He noted that "FIIs are selling not because of concerns relating to elections but because India is underperforming while China and Hong Kong are outperforming."
Global markets were mostly positive, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rising 0.66% and Japan's Nikkei gaining 1.6%. China stocks and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index also posted gains. Wall Street closed higher overnight as higher-than-expected U.S. weekly jobless claims fuelled hopes of interest rate cuts.
Oil prices continued their upward trend, with Brent futures rising 48 cents to $84.36 a barrel and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude growing 52 cents to $79.78, supported by signs of an improving economy in China and ongoing hostilities between Israel and Hamas.
The Indian rupee rose 1 paisa to 83.47 against the US dollar in early trade, while the dollar index rose 0.07% to 105.3 level.