Extending gains for the second straight session, the Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty ended higher with gains of over half a percent on Friday. After making a positive start, the index witnessed weakness, but soon the index staged a recovery and remained higher throughout the session on account of strong buying in IT and TECK stocks, following upbeat Q2 results. Besides, sentiments got boost as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman expressed hope that the India-US trade agreement would be concluded at the earliest, in the interest of global trade and bilateral economic ties between the two countries. Further, support also came in as the commerce ministry’s data showed that India’s merchandise exports rose by 23.05% to $44.40 billion in September 2026 as compared to $36.08 billion in September 2025, driven by healthy growth in shipments of petroleum products, electronic goods and chemicals. Finally, Nifty ended near 23,150 mark.
Traders were seen piling up positions in IT, Media and Cement stocks, while selling was witnessed in Consumer Durables, OIL & GAS and FMCG. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Tech Mahindra, Wipro and KPIT Technologies. On the other hand, the top losers were Angel One, Yes Bank and L&T Finance. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 23400 - 23600 calls and 22400 - 22600 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.
