Stock markets recover early lost ground; trade higher on foreign fund inflows   

Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty bounced back after starting the trade on a weak note on Friday, helped by foreign fund inflows and hopes of US Fed rate cuts.

The 30-share BSE Sensex dropped 261.58 points to 83,206.08 in early trade. The 50-share NSE Nifty declined 76.7 points to 25,508.60.

However, soon both the benchmark indices recovered their early lost ground and were trading higher. The 30-share BSE benchmark gauge quoted 151.89 points higher at 83,625.05, and the Nifty traded 31.60 points up at 25,617.30.

From the Sensex firms, Asian Paints, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bharat Electronics, Bharti Airtel and Titan were among the gainers.

However, Eternal declined over 2 per cent post earnings announcement.

HCL Tech, Infosys, Tech Mahindra and Power Grid were also among the laggards.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 997.29 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data. Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) also bought stocks worth Rs 4,076.20 crore in the previous trade.

“A turnaround in FII inflows, expectations of Fed rate cuts, the IMF’s upward revision of India’s FY26 GDP growth forecast to 6.6 per cent, and crude prices staying weak near USD 57.35 a barrel have lifted sentiment,” Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd, said.

In Asian markets, South Korea’s Kospi traded in the positive territory while Japan’s Nikkei 225 index, Shanghai’s SSE Composite index and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng quoted lower.

US markets ended lower on Thursday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.25 per cent to USD 60.94 a barrel.

On Thursday, the Sensex jumped 862.23 points or 1.04 per cent to settle at 83,467.66. The Nifty surged 261.75 points or 1.03 per cent to 25,585.30.