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Recouping half of their yesterday’s losses, Indian equity benchmarks ended the Friday’s trade with a gain of around two and a half percentage points, as traders wend for bargain hunting as U.S. President Joe Biden hit back at Russia with harsh sanctions after it attacked Ukraine. Markets started the day with a gap up opening and traded with traction throughout the day amid buying across the sectors, finishing near intraday high levels. Sentiments remained up-beat as traders took support with report that the heightened geopolitical tensions and their possible impact on global growth have led investors to believe that US Federal Reserve will ton down its aggressive interest rate hike pitch going ahead. Besides, US President Joe Biden’s announcement that the country is working with allies on a release of oil from strategic reserves after crude prices shot up, too aided sentiments.

Sentiments also got support with report that Moody’s Investors Service upgraded its financial year 2022-2023 (FY23) growth forecast for the Indian economy to 8.4 per cent from the earlier estimated 7.9 per cent as the country moves to normalcy, post the removal Covid-19 restrictions. Meanwhile, Fitch Ratings maintained its earlier projection of 10.3 percent growth in FY23 compared to 8.4 percent estimated for FY22. Traders shrugged off report that India has received total foreign direct investment (FDI) of $60.3 billion during April to December period of 2021-22 which is 10.6 per cent lower compared to the $67.5 billion of FDI received in the same period of 2020-21. Traders also took note of Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) V Anantha Nageswaran’s statement that the Indian economy is now poised for recovery but high crude oil price is a cause for concern. Besides, the income tax department said it has issued refunds of close to Rs 1.83 lakh crore to more than 2.07 crore taxpayers so far this fiscal. This includes 1.67 crore refunds of the 2020-21 fiscal ended March 31, 2021, amounting to Rs 33,818.97 crore.

Global cues too remained supportive with European markets making affirm start and Asian markets ending mostly in green as markets around the globe staged a smart recovery from the sell-off on Thursday, triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine that rattled investor sentiment. Back home, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has exhorted financial institutions like Sidbi to be more people-centric in the next 25 years so that the economy moves to a higher growth path. The government has termed the next 25 years leading to the 100th anniversary of India's independence as 'Amrit Kaal'. On the sectoral front, auto stocks remained in limelight after Crisil Ratings has said that two-wheeler sales volume is likely to dip by 8-10 per cent this fiscal year due to factors like sluggish rural demand, low festive-season sales, higher prices, and deferred purchases as consumers’ eye electric vehicles. The decline in sales volume in the current financial year is expected on an already-low base after two consecutive years of decline -- at 13 per cent in fiscal 2021 and 18 per cent in fiscal 2020.

Finally, the BSE Sensex surged 1328.61 points or 2.44% to 55,858.52 and the CNX Nifty was up by 410.45 points or 2.53% to 16,658.40.

The BSE Sensex touched high and low of 56,183.70 and 55,299.28, respectively. There were 28 stocks advancing against 2 stocks declining on the index.

The broader indices ended in green; the BSE Mid cap index soared 4.07%, while Small cap index was up by 4.17%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 5.91%, Realty up by 5.47%, Power up by 4.64%, Utilities up by 4.43%, Basic Materials up by 4.16%, while there was no loser on BSE sectoral front.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Tata Steel up by 6.54%, Indusind Bank up by 5.83%, Bajaj Finance up by 5.16%, NTPC up by 4.91% and Tech Mahindra up by 4.26%. On the flip side, Nestle down by 0.25% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.02% were the only losers.

Meanwhile, Government’s data has showed that India has received total foreign direct investment (FDI) of $60.3 billion during April to December period of 2021-22 which is 10.6 per cent lower compared to the $67.5 billion of FDI received in the same period of 2020-21. It showed that equity inflow through FDI during April to December period of 2021-22 is $43.1 billion which is 16 per cent lesser than the $51.4 billion received in same period of 2020-21, even as the government continued to put in place an enabling and investor-friendly FDI policy and remove policy bottlenecks that have been hindering the investment inflows into the country.

It stated Manufacturing, computer services, communication services, retail and wholesale trade and education, research and development are the sectors that attracted most of the investment with computer software and hardware leading with the highest FDI equity inflows of $10.25 billion. Telecommunications received $0.58 billion, services sector retained the lead in FDI inflows with $5.34 billion, followed by trading with $2.98 billionand automobile industry with $5.96 billion.

Foreign Direct Investment in construction (infrastructure) activities was to the tune of $1.58 billion while in the sector of construction development, townships, housing, built-up infrastructure and construction-development projects, FDI inflows were $0.09 billion. Drugs & pharmaceuticals saw $1.20 billion FDI, chemicals (other than fertilizers), $0.6 billion and hotel and tourism $0.64 billion of FDI.

The CNX Nifty traded in a range of 16,748.80 and 16,478.30. There were 47 stocks advancing against 3 stocks declining on the index.

The top gainers on Nifty were Coal India up by 8.97%, Tata Motors up by 7.43%, Tata Steel up by 6.64%, Adani Ports & SEZ up by 6.15% and Indusind Bank up by 5.87%. On the flip side, Britannia Industries down by 0.67%, Nestle down by 0.17% and Hindustan Unilever down by 0.03% were the few losers.

European markets were trading higher; UK’s FTSE 100 rose 153.12 points or 2.12% to 7,360.50, France’s CAC advanced 111.54 points or 1.71% to 6,632.59 and Germany’s DAX was up by 187.42 points or 1.33% to 14,239.52.

Most of Asian markets ended higher on Friday powered by the strong rally in US markets on Thursday as the West imposed retaliatory sanctions on Russia. Russia finally invaded Ukraine, firing missiles at several Ukrainian cities and landing troops on Ukraine's south coast. Several countries, including the U.S. and U.K., Australian and Japan have already imposed severe sanctions on Russia following the invasion, potentially targeting the country's all-important energy sector. U.S. President Joe Biden said the new sanctions will limit Russia's ability to do business in dollars, euros, pounds and yen, stop Russia's ability to finance and grow their military and impair their ability to compete in high-tech 21st century economy. China's Shanghai Composite Index gained after the People's Bank of China injected 300-billion-yuan worth of liquidity into the banking system, far higher than the 10 billion yuan of expiring loans.

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