Sensex, Nifty rise led by gains in metal stocks

The Indian equity benchmarks edged higher on Friday mirroring gains in global markets after Wall Street surged to record highs in the previous session. The Sensex rose as much as 440 points and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday high of 25,547.85. Mahindra & Mahindra , Reliance Industries, JSW Steel , ITC, Infosys , HDFC Bank and Tata Steel were among the top movers in the Sensex.

As of 9:20 am, the Sensex was up 123 points at 83,317 and Nifty 50 index advanced 55 points to 25,470.

Most of the Asian markets were trading higher tracking record closing on Wall Street. Japan's Nikkei jumped 2 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng jumped 0.73 per cent, South Korea's KOSPI advanced 1 per cent and Taiwan Weighted jumped 0.91 per cent.

The S&P 500 surged to a record high close on Thursday, the day after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 50 basis points and indicated more rate cuts were on the horizon.

The blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average also registered a record closing high, ending the session above 42,000 for the first time.

The S&P 500 climbed 1.70 per cent to end the session at 5,713.64 points, its highest close ever.

The Nasdaq gained 2.51 per cent to 18,013.98 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.26 per cent to 42,025.19 points.

Back home, buying was visible across board as all the major sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty Metal index's 1.7 per cent gain. Nifty Realty, Auto, Pharma, IT, PSU Bank and Oil & Gas indices also rose between 0.5-1.7 per cent.

Broader markets were also witnessing buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.58 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index rose 0.73 per cent.

JSW Steel was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 3.24 per cent to Rs 979. Hindalco, Tata Steel, Mahindra & Mahindra , HDFC Life, Coal India, Divi's Labs, Bharat Petroleum and Bajaj Finserv also rose between 0.8-1.8 per cent.

On the flipside, Axis Bank , Tata Motors, Titan, Asian Paints , Cipla, Hero MotoCorp and NTPC were among the top losers.

The overall market breadth was positive as 1,809 shares were advancing while 1,040 were advancing on the BSE.

(With Reuters inputs)