At 10:19 am, the BSE Sensex was up 903 points, or 1.13%, at 81,145, while the Nifty50 rose 243 points, or 1%, to trade at 24,577.
Financials led the pack, rising 0.9%. The broader small- and mid-caps rose about 1% each.
The total market capitalisation of all listed companies on the BSE jumped by Rs 3.78 lakh crore to Rs 427.02 lakh crore.
Here are the key factors behind today’s rally:
1) Hopes of a US-India trade deal
President Trump said on Wednesday that he sees “potential” trade deals with India, South Korea, and Japan, boosting global risk sentiment. Additionally, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio indicated that China may be ready to resume trade talks with the U.S.
“The high probability of India being among the five ‘allies’ of the US entering into early trade deals is a significant positive,” said Dr. VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
2) Strong FII inflows
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have turned net buyers of Indian equities, purchasing shares for 11 consecutive sessions—the longest such streak in two years. This follows a three-month period of outflows.“After the sharp correction triggered by Trump’s reciprocal tariffs and the Pahalgam terror strikes, the Nifty closed April with over 4% gains. This resilience is largely due to sustained FII buying worth Rs 37,375 crore over eleven trading sessions,” Vijayakumar added. He attributed the buying to a weaker dollar and slowing growth in the U.S.
3) Crude oil below $63/barrel
Oil prices slipped below $63 per barrel, easing inflationary concerns for India, which imports a majority of its crude needs. Brent crude was trading around $62.6, while WTI hovered near $59.74 in early trade on Friday.
“A decline in crude prices, coupled with early signs of demand recovery, is a positive for the market,” said Vijayakumar.
4) Weakening US dollar
The dollar index fell 0.27% to 99.98 on Friday, down significantly from 109.88 in early February. A weaker dollar tends to benefit emerging markets like India by encouraging foreign inflows and strengthening the rupee.
5) Rally in IT stocks
The Nifty IT index rose over 1.3%, led by gains in Coforge, Persistent Systems, Infosys, Wipro, and TCS—rising up to 3%. The rally followed strong earnings from U.S. tech giants Microsoft and Meta, which eased concerns over AI-related spending.
Overnight, Microsoft surged 7.6% and briefly overtook Apple as the world’s most valuable company, fueled by upbeat guidance for its Azure cloud business. Meta also rose 4.2%, hitting its highest level since April 9, after reporting strong ad revenue growth.
6) Positive global market cues
Asian stock markets and U.S. futures traded higher on Friday amid optimism over potential U.S.-China trade talks, which helped lift risk sentiment despite weak earnings from Apple and Amazon. Indian markets mirrored this uptrend, with benchmark indices opening sharply higher.
Futures for the S&P 500 rose 0.6%, while Nasdaq futures were up 0.3%. Japan’s Nikkei jumped 1% on the back of a weaker yen, and Taiwan equities surged 2%. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.4%.
