Indian stock markets opened almost flat on Friday, with a slight upward movement, following a positive trend in other Asian markets.
The Nifty 50 index opened at 24,196.40 points, up by 7.75 points or 0.03%, while the Sensex opened at 80,072.99 points, gaining 129.28 points or 0.16%.
Market experts observed that Thursday's performance was driven by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) buying, but noted that the current strengthening of the dollar makes it challenging to sustain such investments.
As a result, the market may see moderate movement until major corporate earnings are announced.
V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, remarked, “The market's surprise rally of 445 points in the Nifty was remarkable. The outperformance of large-cap stocks compared to small-caps is a positive signal and may continue. However, it’s premature to conclude that FIIs will keep buying. With the dollar index at 109.25 and the U.S. 10-year yield at 4.56%, the macroeconomic environment isn’t favorable for sustained FII inflows. The impressive rise in deposit growth bodes well for banking stocks, which appear fairly priced."
Sector-wise, the Nifty Media index led with a 1.4% rise, while Auto, IT, and Healthcare indices faced pressure. Other sectors showed positive movement. In the Nifty 50 list, 29 stocks gained, while 21 saw declines.
Top gainers included ONGC, HCLTech, SBI, Trent, and Mahindra & Mahindra. The top losers were Hero Moto, Infosys, TCS, Asian Paints, and Wipro.
Akshay Chinchalkar, Head of Research at Axis Securities, noted that Nifty had its best day since November 22, closing above the November 19 gap-down level of 24,150, which was a boost for tactical bulls.
He added that while the recent break of the 200-day moving average was a bear trap, continued movement above 24,250 and critical resistance at 24,306 would be key. Support lies at 24,000, with an extension at 23,830.
Seasonally, based on data from the last year, Fridays have been the best day of the week for the Nifty, with an average gain of 0.2% and a 60% win-rate.
In other Asian markets, Japan’s market remained closed for the New Year, while other indices surged on Friday.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose over 1%, Taiwan’s Weighted gained 0.96%, South Korea's KOSPI jumped 2%, while China's Shanghai Composite was down at the time of reporting.