Sensex jumps 280 points, Nifty nears 12,050 amid firm global cues

NEW DELHI: Domestic equity indices gained in Friday's session as a last-gasp Sino-US trade deal and a likely major election win by Britain's Conservative Party looked to have cleared a couple of dark clouds from the global horizon.

Back home, a rising inflation and falling factory output, however, capped gains. India's retail inflation for November climbed to a more than three-year high of 5.54 per cent while industrial production shrank for the third consecutive month in October by 3.8 per cent.

BSE benchmark Sensex was up 288 points at 40,869 while its NSE counterpart Nifty jumped 68 points to 12,040. Broader market moved in-line with their headline peers as Nifty Midcap firmed 0.50 per cent to 16,856 and Nifty Smallcap edged 0.47 per cent higher to 5,631.


The volatility index, India VIX, slipped 4.19 per cent to 12.78.


Barring Nifty Pharma that shed 0.58 per cent to 7,998, all sectoral indices on NSE were trading in the green. Nifty Metal was the biggest gainer, adding 2.13 per cent to 2,623. Vedanta, Hindalco and Tata Steel were major gainers on the index, each adding about 3 per cent.

Among Sensex stocks, apart from Vedanta and Tata Motors, YES Bank gained 3.2 percent to Rs 46.95 as a report said the lender is keeping QIP option open. Bharti Airtel was the biggest loser, down 0.76 per cent at Rs 435.70.

Asian shares scaled eight-month peaks on Friday as the double dose of relief slugged safe-haven sovereign bonds and the Japanese yen, and led markets to scale back the chance of more interest rates cuts around the world.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei climbed 2.4 per cent to a 14-month top, while South Korean stocks firmed 1.3 per cent. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan climbed 1.2 per cent to its highest since late April. Shanghai blue chips advanced 1.4 per cent.

E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 rose 0.4 per cent to another peak, and EUROSTOXX 50 futures gained 0.9 per cent. FTSE futures eased 0.2 per cent, perhaps because a Tory win had already been priced in.

Wall Street had celebrated the trade news with record highs. The Dow ended Thursday up 0.79 per cent, while the S&P 500 gained 0.86 per cent and the Nasdaq 0.73 per cent.