Sensex gains 50 pts, Nifty tests 10,700; ICICI Bank jumps 4%

Domestic equity markets opened in the green on Friday cheered by better than expected Q4 GDP data. Indian economy grew at 7.7 per cent during January-March quarter of financial year 2017-18 compared with 6.1 per cent a year ago, driven by gains in manufacturing and consumer spending.

The BSE Sensex opened over 50 points up at 35,373.98, whereas NSE Nifty index kicked off the day at 10738.45, up 2.3 points against the previous close of 10,736.15.

As many as 31 stocks in the Nifty index were trading in the green with ICICI Bank gaining the most at 3.83 per cent, followed by Bajaj Auto (up 2.04 per cent), Indiabulls Housing Finance (up 1.61 per cent), Maruti Suzuki (up 1.59 per cent) and BPCL (up 1.57 per cent).


On the other hand, ONGC, Power Grid, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Indiabulls Housing Bank and GAIL were down between 1.11 per cent and 2.73 per cent.

HDFC Bank was down nearly 1 per cent at Rs 2115.45 in the early trade.


Barring oil & gas and power index on the BSE, other sectoral indices were trading in the green. The BSE IT and Auto index jumped up to 0.75 per cent.

PNC Infratech has been declared the L1 (lowest) bidder for the 54.4 km long 4th Package of Nagpur-Mumbai Six Lane Access Controlled Super Communication Expressway (Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg) from Km 162.667 to Km 217.023, village Donad to village Januana section in Washim District on EPC basis for a quoted price of Rs 2099.52 crore. Shares of the company were trading 1.19 per cent up at Rs 179.

The US markets ended lower on Thursday, after showing sharp recovery in the previous session, amid trade war concerns. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 251.94 points or 1.02 per cent to 24,415.84 and the S&P 500 declined 18.74 points or 0.69 per cent to 2,705.27 and the Nasdaq was down by 20.34 points or 0.27 per cent to 7442.12.