Post Session: Quick Review

Indian equity benchmarks ended in positive territory on Friday, driven by buying in Realty, Pharma and IT stocks. Markets made a gap-up opening and remained higher throughout session, as investors cheered softer-than-expected U.S. jobs data, which fuelled expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve could adopt a less aggressive approach to interest rate cuts.

Some of the important factors in trade:

India, Japan unveil economic partnership framework, defence pact: Some support also came as India and Japan have unveiled a raft of initiatives, including an economic partnership framework and a defence pact to co-develop military hardware following talks between Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Sanae Takaichi. 

India's private credit market doubles to $25 billion in AUM over past 5 years: Sentiment remained positive after Moody's Ratings said in its latest report that India's private credit market has doubled in size over the past five years, reaching around $25 billion in AUM by the end of 2025, with annual transaction volumes exceeding $11 billion.

India's services PMI drops to 57.4 in June: Traders overlooked report that India’s services activity expanded at a slower pace in June as domestic demand softened, client interest weakened for some services and hiring was broadly stagnant. The seasonally adjusted HSBC India Services PMI Business Activity Index fell to 57.4 in June from 59.8 in May. 

On the global front: European markets were trading mostly lower, after France's industrial production dropped marginally in May after rising for two straight months. Asian markets closed in green amid easing geopolitical tensions and fading expectations of an imminent interest-rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

The BSE Sensex ended at 77763.91, up by 261.79 points or 0.34% after trading in a range of 77710.01 and 78157.52. There were 16 stocks advancing against 14 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Realty up by 2.22%, IT up by 1.55%, TECK up by 1.54%, Healthcare up by 1.31% and Basic Materials up by 0.90%, while Power down by 2.39%, Capital Goods down by 2.26%, Industrials down by 1.45%, Utilities down by 0.58% and PSU down by 0.50% were the top losing indices on BSE. (Provisional)

The top gainers on the Sensex were HCL Technologies up by 5.80%, Sun Pharma up by 1.79%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.76%, Bajaj Finserv up by 1.72% and Ultratech Cement up by 1.65%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 1.54%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.21%, State Bank of India down by 0.98%, Larsen & Toubro down by 0.76% and Kotak Mahindra Bank down by 0.68% were the top losers. (Provisional)

Meanwhile, Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has said that oil marketing companies incurred losses of Rs 74,781 crore by selling petrol, diesel, and LPG below cost for the period up to June 30 when global crude oil prices spiked in the wake of the West Asia conflict.

Puri stated international crude oil prices have come down but companies are still processing crude they bought at the height of the West Asia crisis. Oil companies typically buy crude oil -- the raw material for producing fuel -- at least two months in advance. So, crude oil that is being processed now is essentially what was bought in April or early May when international prices were very high.

Talking about the possibility of lowering petrol and diesel prices, Puri said this would be a legitimate question if oil prices stayed low for the next few weeks. Crude oil prices started coming down only in the second half of June following an agreement between the US and Iran to end the conflict.

The CNX Nifty ended at 24270.85, up by 95.15 points or 0.39% after trading in a range of 24252.35 and 24378.15. There were 32 stocks advancing against 18 stocks declining on the index. (Provisional)

The top gainers on Nifty were HCL Technologies up by 5.74%, Dr. Reddy's up by 2.11%, Max Healthcare up by 2.01%, Bharti Airtel up by 1.89% and Bajaj Finserv up by 1.85%. On the flip side, Axis Bank down by 1.47%, Mahindra & Mahindra down by 1.21%, State Bank of India down by 1.01%, Tech Mahindra down by 0.96% and Larsen & Toubro down by 0.82% were the top losers. (Provisional)

European markets were trading mostly in red; UK’s FTSE 100 decreased 24.91 points or 0.23% to 10,627.96 and France’s CAC fell 0.96 points or 0.01% to 8,473.90, while Germany’s DAX gained 103.02 points or 0.4% to 25,683.90.

Asian markets settled higher on Friday as cooler-than-expected US jobs data prompted traders to scale back bets on Federal Reserve rate hikes. Data showed that US Nonfarm payrolls increased by 57,000 jobs in June, slower than the downwardly revised 129,000 added in May and worse than the street forecast of 115,000. Regional sentiment was also bolstered by easing geopolitical risks, following progress in US-Iran talks and signs of improved shipping activity through the Strait of Hormuz. South Korea's Kospi index soared, rebounding sharply from a brutal 7.89% collapse in the previous session, cheered by reports that South Korea's Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Ministry of Science and ICT plan to divert 5 trillion KRW in chip-industry tax revenue entirely into proprietary AI models and public computing infrastructure. Chinese shares gained, despite a private survey showed China's services activity eased less than expected in June. Meanwhile, Japanese shares gained after data showed Japan's services sector returned to growth in June despite rising costs.