Sensex rebounds 224 points from day's low, Nifty at 9,580; ONGC top gainer, jumps over 5%

The market ended the volatile session with the firm gain of 0.95 percent. While posting gap-down opening due to weak political sentiments and remaining in red territory for most of the session, benchmarks recovered remarkably in the last hour of trade driven by strong buying emerged in index heavyweight banking stocks.

The Banking index up by 0.7 percent compared to intraday low of -2 percent. Auto, FMCG, pharma and metal stocks also witnessed sharp buying in today session.

Buying was broad-based and all sectorial indices except IT ended in green. The market participants are cautiously awaiting the US President Donald Trump's response to China's passage of a national security law for Hong Kong. India’s Q4FY20 GDP will also release post-market hours.

Extending its rising streak to the third session, equity benchmark Sensex jumped 224 points on Friday, driven by gains in HDFC, ITC and HUL despite weak cues from global markets.

After gyrating 656.72 points during the day, the 30-share BSE index rebounded from the day's low to settle 223.51 points or 0.69 percent higher at 32,424.10. It hit an intra-day high of 32,480.52 and a low of 31,823.80.

The NSE Nifty advanced 90.20 points or 0.95 percent to 9,580.30. During the day, it touched a high of 9,598.85 and a low of 9,376.90.

Manish Hathiramani, Index Trader and Technical Analyst, Deen Dayal Investments, told Firstpost, "The Nifty made a sharp recovery after being sideways for the greater part of the day. It broke out of an intraday range of 9,420-9,520 and moved higher to levels closer to 9,600. The market also managed to cross its recent high of 9,585 which was recorded on 13 May 2020. The level of 9,700 should be achieved sooner than later," he said.

ONGC was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, jumping over 5 percent, followed by Bajaj Auto, ITC, Sun Pharma, Nestle India, L&T, Maruti, UltraTech Cement and HUL. On the other hand, Infosys, Axis Bank, Bharti Airtel, TCS and Titan were among the laggards.

Besides stock-specific action, heavy foreign fund inflows lent buying confidence to domestic investors, analysts said.

Sumeet Bagadia, Executive Director, Choice Broking said, "Finally, the Nifty settled its weekly closing at 9,580-level with the gain of 90 points while BankNifty settled its weekly closing at 19297 level with the gain of 127 points. During the week, we saw a good recovery in the Index and in major stock as well. The ways Nifty has been trading above its 21 Days moving Average since last three days, it indicates a positive momentum for the time being. As of now, the Index has a resistance at 9600, if the index gives a close above this level then we may see a good spurt upto the level of 9730-9890 level which downside support comes at 9,400."

On a net basis, foreign portfolio investors bought equities worth Rs 2,354.14 crore on Thursday, provisional exchange data showed.

Further, markets witnessed volatility as India registered its biggest single-day spike of 7,466 coronavirus cases.

The number of COVID-19 cases in India crossed 1.65 lakh and the death toll climbed to 4,706, as per health ministry data.

Globally, the number of cases linked to the disease has crossed 58.10 lakh, with the death toll at around 3.60 lakh.

Meanwhile, bourses in Hong Kong and Tokyo closed on a negative note, while Shanghai and Seoul finished with gains.

Stock exchanges in Europe were trading in the red in early deals.

International oil benchmark Brent crude futures slipped 2.33 percent to $35.19 per barrel.

Rupee settles 14 paise higher at 75.62 against dollar

The rupee appreciated 14 paise to provisionally close at 75.62 against the US dollar on Friday as foreign fund inflows and weak American currency boosted investor confidence.

Forex traders said investors are awaiting the country's gross domestic product data for the January-March quarter, due later in the day, for further cues, PTI said.

The rupee opened at 75.71 at the interbank forex market, gained further ground, and finally settled at 75.62, up 14 paise over its last close.

It had settled at 75.76 against the US dollar on Thursday.

The dollar index, which gauges the greenback''s strength against a basket of six currencies, fell by 0.08 percent to 98.30.

--With PTI inputs