Mumbai, Aug 28: Indian equity markets recovered on Friday after two sessions of losses, with technology stocks leading the early gains. Investors, however, remained cautious ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh’s address at the Jackson Hole Symposium, while recent volatility during the market closing session continued to attract attention.
The Sensex rose around 0.36 per cent to 77,216.23, while the Nifty 50 gained about 0.22 per cent to 24,144.90 in the latest trading. The Nifty IT index was among the strongest performers, rising around 3 per cent as technology stocks benefited from positive sentiment following Nvidia’s strong outlook.
The recovery comes after a weak session on Thursday, when heavyweight stocks came under selling pressure. Investors are now watching whether the latest rebound can hold through the trading session.
The technology sector has received support from the global rally in US technology stocks, particularly after Nvidia’s positive outlook strengthened expectations around continued investment in artificial intelligence. This has provided some relief to Indian IT shares.
However, market sentiment remains sensitive to global interest-rate expectations. Investors are closely watching Warsh’s comments at Jackson Hole for clues about the Federal Reserve’s future policy direction. Any change in expectations around US rates could influence foreign fund flows, bond yields and emerging-market equities, including India.
The sharp price movements seen near the end of Thursday’s trading session have also kept the Closing Auction Session (CAS) in focus. The new mechanism has been associated with unusually large swings in index and stock prices during the final minutes of trading, particularly on the recent monthly derivatives expiry.
The market is also keeping an eye on the rupee. The currency was trading around Rs 95.56 against the US dollar, with month-end importer demand contributing to pressure on the rupee.
For investors, the combination of global technology gains, US monetary-policy signals, currency movements and the new closing-auction mechanism is likely to keep trading volatile.
With the Nifty attempting to recover towards the 24,150 area, market participants are expected to closely track IT stocks, heavyweight companies and global cues for the next direction of the domestic market.