Sensex gains 308 points and Nifty reclaims 23,000 as IT and pharma shares lead second day of gains
Indian shares rose for a second straight session on Friday, with the Sensex closing 308.49 points higher at 74,459.53 and the Nifty gaining 116.35 points to 23,053.10, led by IT and pharmaceutical stocks. Figures checked at about 4:51 pm PKT on Friday, 30 October 2026.
Indian equity benchmarks rose for a second consecutive session on Friday, with the 30-share BSE Sensex climbing 308.49 points, or 0.42 per cent, to settle at 74,459.53, and the 50-share NSE Nifty gaining 116.35 points, or 0.51 per cent, to close at 23,053.10. Figures in this post were checked at about 4:51 pm PKT on Friday, 30 October 2026.
The session began on a muted note, with weak global cues, escalating Middle East tensions and rising crude oil prices weighing on sentiment after a sharp sell-off in global technology shares. But buying in information technology and pharmaceutical stocks steadily lifted the benchmarks, and the Nifty pushed through the psychologically important 23,100 mark during intraday trade before settling just above 23,050.
During the day the Sensex surged 591.55 points, or 0.79 per cent, to an intraday high of 74,742.59. The gains extended Thursday's strong rebound, when the Sensex had jumped 905.01 points to close at 74,151.04 and the Nifty had added 237.90 points to end at 22,936.75. Over the week as a whole, both benchmarks rose nearly 2 per cent each.
Tata Group retail arm Trent led the gainers, jumping more than 5 per cent after reporting a 25 per cent year-on-year increase in consolidated net profit to 468 crore rupees for the September quarter, helped by revenue growth and operating leverage. InterGlobe Aviation, the operator of IndiGo, Infosys, NTPC, Power Grid, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Tech Mahindra and HCL Technologies were also among the major advancers.
By sector, technology and healthcare did the heavy lifting. The Nifty IT index surged 2.16 per cent, the best performance among sectoral indices, followed by Nifty Pharma, up 1.67 per cent, and Nifty Healthcare, up 1.59 per cent. The strength in IT shares stood out against the global backdrop, where worries about heavy artificial intelligence spending had hammered technology stocks elsewhere in the week.
Not everything rose. State Bank of India, Mahindra & Mahindra, UltraTech Cement and Tata Steel were among the major laggards on the Sensex, and the broader market stayed weak even as the headline indices advanced. The Nifty MidCap 100 fell 0.93 per cent and the Nifty SmallCap 100 dropped 1.85 per cent, a reminder that the rally was narrow rather than broad-based.
The rupee also found some footing. It opened at 95.21 against the US dollar, touched an intraday high of 94.94 and a low of 95.28, and finally closed at 94.93, a gain of 33 paise over its previous close. Foreign institutional investors had offloaded equities worth 943.60 crore rupees on Thursday, according to exchange data, so domestic institutional buying provided an important cushion for the market.
The wider backdrop remains uneasy. Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, traded around 115 to 117 dollars a barrel during the day, keeping concerns about India's import bill, inflation and currency stability in focus, while gold slipped as higher oil prices and strong US inflation data bolstered bets on a December rate rise by the US Federal Reserve.
For investors, the question now is whether the two-day rebound can broaden out. A rally led by a handful of large IT and pharma names, with mid-caps and small-caps still falling, is fragile by nature; the next sessions will show whether buying spreads to the wider market or whether the headline gains fade once the earnings-driven momentum in stocks such as Trent runs its course.
This post is market news information only, not financial advice.
