Mumbai stock exchanges started the day on a mild upbeat, as Sensex inched higher by 28 points to 82,335 and Nifty by 55 points to 25,344. This tepid opening belies underlying sectoral rotations.
Leadership came from metal and IT indices, supported by green shoots in healthcare, pharma, consumer durables, commodities, private banking, and autos.
Laggards included realty, energy, FMCG, PSU banks, defense, oil & gas, and infrastructure, highlighting divergent investor flows.
Market breadth improved with midcaps and smallcaps gaining ground. Nifty Midcap 100 added 0.25% or 131 points to 58,322, and Nifty Smallcap 100 rose 0.20% or 34 points to 16,711.
Sensex gainers: TCS, HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Finance, Infosys, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Bharti Airtel, M&M, Trent, ITC, HDFC Bank. Notable decliners: IndiGo, Power Grid, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, L&T, SBI.
Asian markets largely advanced—Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Seoul up—while Jakarta fell. US stocks closed strong on Thursday.
Net FII outflows stood at Rs 2,549.80 crore for the day, countered by DII inflows of Rs 4,222.98 crore. This FII selloff-DII buy-on trend is expected to linger into 2026 absent positive earnings surprises or policy boosts for foreign investment.