Sensex rejoices on Trump tariff halt, jumps 1,300 pts

The benchmarks – BSE Sensex climbed 1,310 points or 1.77 per cent to 75,157, and NSE Nifty50 rose 429 points or 1.92 per cent to 22,828 – led by heavy buying across metal, pharma, and consumer durable counters.

However, on a weekly basis, the Sensex and Nifty posted a decline of 0.27 per cent and 0.33 per cent, respectively. On Friday, from the Sensex pack, Tata Steel, Power Grid Corporation, NTPC, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Reliance Industries (RIL) were among the top gainers, with gains of up to 4.87 per cent.

Conversely, Asian Paints and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) were the only two Sensex stocks that ended lower, with losses of 0.76 per cent and 0.20 per cent, respectively. Small-cap shares outperformed others in the broader market, with the Nifty Smallcap100 index settling 2.88 per cent higher, led by Atul and Welspun Living, which ended up by as much as 11 per cent.

The Nifty Midcap100 index also ended higher by 1.85 per cent, led by PI Industries and Dixon Technologies, whose shares rose by up to 9.84 per cent.

Among the sectoral indices, the Nifty Metal Index recorded the largest gains of 4.09 per cent, led by Hindalco and Jindal Steel.

This was followed by consumer durables and pharma, which ended higher by up to 3.19 per cent and 2.43 per cent, respectively. Other sectoral indices also settled with gains in the range of 1–2.20 per cent.

Amidst this, the fear index (India VIX) settled lower by 6.17 per cent at 20.11 points. Meanwhile, Vinod Nair, head of research, Geojit Financial Services, believes that any development in bilateral trade negotiations can alter the near-term outlook on export-driven sectors.

Notably, in week foward, the Indian equity markets will remain closed for trading on Monday, April 14 (Baba Saheb Ambedkar Jayanti), and Friday, April 18, on account of Good Friday.