At 9:19 am, the BSE Sensex was up 274 points, or 0.34%, at 81,635, while the Nifty50 rose 70 points, or 0.28%, to 24,864
From the Sensex pack, Bajaj Finserv, M&M, UltraTech Cement, SBI, Eternal, Maruti Suzuki, and Axis Bank were the top gainers, rising up to 1.5%. On the flip side, IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finance, Tech Mahindra, and Titan opened in the red.
Meanwhile, Asian peers opened subdued on Friday after reports that Israel had bombed Iranian nuclear sites, triggering retaliatory missile and drone strikes from Iran.
The White House said U.S. President Donald Trump would decide within two weeks whether the U.S. would back Israel militarily.
On the sectoral front, Nifty Bank, Financial Services, Auto, PSU Bank, and Realty indices rose between 0.2% and 0.8%, while Nifty IT, Consumer Durables, and Oil & Gas opened up to 0.3% lower.Among individual stocks, shares of project financiers PFC and REC jumped up to 4.5% after the RBI issued final guidelines on project financing, streamlining norms across banks, NBFCs, and co-operative banks by replacing multiple legacy circulars.Experts View
“Nifty which has been trading within the 24500-25000 range for about a month now is likely to remain within this range in the near-term. The upper side of the range will be broken only on news of de-escalation of the Israel-Iran conflict or an abrupt end to the war. The lower side of the range is unlikely to break since big buying, particularly by domestic institutions, will emerge on dips. If the war lingers and crude rises beyond $85 the lower band of the range will be broken,” said Dr. VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Investments.
Hardik Matalia, Derivative Analyst at Choice Broking, said, “Nifty can find support at 24,700 followed by 24,600 and 24,500. On the higher side, 24,850 can be an immediate resistance, followed by 24,900 and 25,000.”
Global Markets
Share markets in Asia struggled for direction on Friday as fears of a potential U.S. attack on Iran hung over markets, while oil prices were poised to rise for a third straight week on the escalating Israel-Iran conflict.
The MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged up 0.1% but was set for a weekly drop of 1%. Japan’s Nikkei slipped 0.2%.
China’s blue chips rose 0.3%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.5%, after the central bank held the benchmark lending rates steady as widely expected. Wall Street equities were closed on Thursday.
FII/DII Tracker
The Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) extended their buying on the third consecutive day on June 19 as they bought equities worth Rs 934 crore. On the other hand, Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) also extended their buying as they bought equities of Rs 605 crore on the same day.
Crude Oil
Brent crude prices slipped nearly $2 on Friday, giving up gains from the previous session, after the White House postponed its decision on potential U.S. involvement in the Israel-Iran conflict. Despite the pullback, Brent is on track for a third consecutive weekly gain.
Brent crude futures dropped $1.89, or 2.4%, to $76.96 a barrel by 02:55 GMT, but remain up 3.8% for the week.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for July delivery — which didn’t trade on Thursday due to a U.S. holiday and expires on Friday — was up 53 cents, or 0.7%, at $75.67. The more actively traded August contract edged up 17 cents, or 0.2%, to $73.67.
Rupee vs Dollar
The Indian rupee rose 15 paise to 86.58 against the US dollar in early trade. The dollar index, which tracks the movement of the greenback against a basket of six major world currencies, declined 0.34% to 98.56 level.
(With inputs from agencies)
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