Sensex, Nifty Recover In The Final Hour, Close Modestly Higher

(RTTNews) - Indian shares turned in a mixed performance on Friday with investors digesting the Reserve Bank of India's rate decision and views on the economy, in addition to reacting to the earnings updates.

After a weak start and a subsequent long struggle for support despite a brief move up a little before noon, the market finally closed on a positive note thanks largely to some spirited buying in FMCG and consumer durables stocks.

The benchmark BSE Sensex, which dropped to a low of 82,925.35 around mid morning, climbed to a high of 83,612.12 before ending the session with a gain of 266.47 points or 0.32% at 83,580.40.

The National Stock Exchange's Nifty50 settled with a gain of 50.90 points or 0.2% at 25,693.70, after scaling a low of 25,491.90 and a high of 25,703.95 intraday.

The Reserve Bank of India, which decided to hold the repo rate at 5.25%, projected a GDP growth of 6.9% and 7% for the first and second quarter respectively, while revising upward its FY26 inflation forecast to 2.1%.

FMCG heavyweight ITC gained more than 5% on value buying after suffering losses in recent sessions. Hind Unilever and United Breweries moved up 2.85% and 2.8%, respectively. Patanjali, United Spirits and Godrej Consumer Products too closed with strong gains.

Godfrey Philips soared nearly 10% after reporting an 8.7% increse in its consolidated net profit in the December quarter.

Consumer durables stocks Amber, Whirlpool, Century Plywoods, CERA and Kajaria Ceramics gained 2%-3.6%.

Bharti Airtel ended 2.3% up, after reporting a nearly 19% jump in revenue. Kotak Bank moved up 3.3%. Bajaj Finance, Power Grid Corporation, Bajaj Finserv, Titan, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank closed with sharp to moderate gains.

TCS and Tech Mahindra closed lower by about 1.7% from previous closing levels. Adani Ports, Asian Paints, Eternal, HCL Technologies, HDFC Bank, Infosys, BEL and State Bank of India also ended weak.

HDFC Life, SBI Life, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, Bajaj Auto and Wipro closed lower by 1%-2.5%.