After bleeding for two straight sessions, the bulls roared back in the final hour on Friday. The BSE Sensex climbed 330.91 points, or 0.43%, to close at 77,264.51 and the NSE Nifty 50 added 84.80 points, or 0.35%, to end at 24,175.65 as of 3:32 pm IST – well above the previous close of 76,933.59 and 24,090.85.
Your Google Finance screenshots tell the story perfectly: a strong open, a mid-day sag, and a vertical green spike post 3 pm.
Markets opened firm, tracking supportive global cues. Nifty opened at 24,122.60 and Sensex at 77,128.05, up 0.13% and 0.25% respectively at 9:15 am. By noon, however, both had given up early gains – Nifty cracked below 24,090 to touch an intraday low of 24,076.85, Sensex slipped to 76,988.22.
What triggered the reversal? Bargain hunting in IT heavyweights, covering of shorts ahead of the weekend, and relief on crude prices. Nifty eventually hit 24,188.30 and Sensex 77,357.97 in the last 30 minutes – a swing of almost 112 points from the lows.
Thursday’s close had been messy. Derivatives turnover hit an 11-month low on monthly expiry and the new closing auction saw Sensex indicative price crash over 3% briefly before settling 0.7% lower.
Inside The Sectors: Tech Titans To The Rescue
HEADLINE: Infosys, TCS Lead IT Rally; Banks Play Spoilsport
If Friday had a hero, it was Nifty IT.
Buoyed by Nvidia’s blowout numbers and a 1.57% jump in Nasdaq overnight, Indian tech led from the front. TCS, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, HCL Tech and Wipro were among the top five Nifty gainers at open and held gains through the day. Titan and Power Grid also featured in Sensex winners.
Financials were the drag. ICICI Bank, SBI, Bajaj Finance and private lenders capped upside as rising US bond yields kept rate-sensitive stocks under pressure.
Breadth improved: 13 of 16 major sectors were in green in morning trade, with Nifty Smallcap 100 up 0.2% and Midcap 100 up 0.1%.
Two stocks in focus:
TVS Motor shifts gears: The Chennai-based auto major announced a top-level transition. Peyman Kargar, currently President, International Business, will take over as CEO from January 27, 2027, succeeding K N Radhakrishnan who has led since 2008. Under Kargar, international business now accounts for 29% of volumes. The stock was down 0.8% at Rs 4,376.5 around 11 am on profit-booking.
IPO Street on fire: Tempsens Instruments made a blockbuster debut, listing at Rs 634 on NSE – a staggering 111% premium over its issue price. The strong listing underscores retail appetite for manufacturing plays despite market volatility.
SEBI, meanwhile, is looking to tighten the SME platform. The regulator is considering a 50% quota for qualified institutional buyers, with 35% for retail and 15% for NIIs, plus mandatory operating profit track record – a move to curb fund diversion and inflated subscriptions.
The Macro File: FII Selling, Crude Cool-Off, Warsh Watch
Flows remain the Achilles heel. FIIs net sold Rs 298.26 crore on Thursday, taking year-to-date selling to over Rs 2.4 lakh crore. A Reuters survey of 28 strategists shows analysts have slashed year-end Nifty target to 25,556 for the third consecutive quarter, making India Asia’s worst equity market this year as money chases AI winners in Japan, Korea and Taiwan.
On commodities, Brent eased 0.56% to $89.20 per barrel, offering some cushion to India, the world’s third-largest oil importer.
Global markets were mixed. Japan’s Nikkei added 0.46%, Topix gained 0.74%, while Korea’s Kospi slipped 0.36%. US futures were flat ahead of the main event – Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s Jackson Hole speech tonight. Wall Street had closed firm on Thursday – Dow up 0.20%, S&P 500 up 0.72%.
Geopolitics & Trade: The 50% Tariff Shock
HEADLINE: Trump Tariff Tsunami Hits Indian Exporters From Aug 27
The elephant in the room is Washington.
From August 27, Indian goods entering the US face a steep 50% duty. The structure: 25% reciprocal tariff from August 7 plus an extra 25% punitive levy linked to India’s purchase of discounted Russian crude.
According to economic think tank GTRI, the move hits 66% of India’s $86.5 billion exports to the US – about $60.2 billion worth of textiles, gems & jewellery, leather, shrimp and more.
The ground reality is grim. Apparel Export Promotion Council said the industry had reconciled to 25% but the additional 25% “has effectively driven the Indian apparel industry out of the US market” with a 30-31% tariff disadvantage versus Bangladesh, Vietnam and Cambodia.
Gems and jewellery exporters warn of job cuts as the US is their largest market. Leather and footwear players talk of halting production till clarity emerges on the proposed bilateral trade agreement aiming to double trade to $500 billion from $191 billion.
Moody’s Analytics warned the tariffs threaten to derail India’s growth ambitions, noting tariffs are being used as a “general-purpose policy tool” to push manufacturing back to the US and for geopolitical leverage.
XLRI Professor Trilochan Tripathy called it a “geopolitical manoeuvre rather than economic policy” that could shave 0.3-0.5 percentage points off GDP, though robust domestic demand and a strong services surplus offer buffer.
There is a diplomatic olive branch though. US Ambassador Sergio Gor at the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce said the relationship has “unbelievable potential” and called for predictable taxation and strong IP protection, noting US Embassy in India attracted over $20 billion in investments.
The Takeaway for Traders:
Friday’s bounce is relief, not reversal. Nifty faces heavy Call open interest at 25,000 and Put support at 24,500. Hold 24,100 and the index can aim for 24,300-24,400 next week. Break 24,000 and bears will be back. With US tariffs, FII outflows and Fed commentary colliding, expect volatility to stay elevated.
