FIRST TRADE: Sensex up nearly 100 pts, Nifty above 22,550; Tech Mahindra up over 9%, Bajaj Finance down over 5% after Q4 results

Stock market today: Domestic equity indices Sensex and Nifty50 on Friday, (April 26) inched higher taking positive cues from the Asian markets even as investors remained cautious of the US 10-year yield that continued to trend higher and even as Indian companies reported mixed Q4 results.

Last seen, S&P BSE Sensex was up 0.16 per cent or 117.16 points at 74,456.6 and the 50-scrip gauge gained 0.11 per cent or 23.75 points at 22,594.1.

"Markets are likely to shrug off overnight weakness in US gauges and log gains in early Friday trades amid optimism in other Asian indices. However, investors would be wary of the US 10-year Treasury note yield rising above 4.7 per cent, the highest since early November. Traders have scaled back their expectations regarding the timing of a Fed rate reduction, now completely factoring in the first cut by December," said Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd.

Tapse added that FII selling has gathered pace as uncertainty over rate cuts and stubborn inflation is prompting overseas funds to offload their holdings in emerging equities, including India.

In the broader market, Nifty Midcap 100 and Smallcap 100 traded in positive territory. Nifty Bank was up 0.14 per cent at 48,559.85.

BUZZING STOCKS

Tech Mahindra shares were up over 9 per cent after the company posted Q4 results in line with estimates.

Mphasis shares were up over 5 per cent after the company announced mixed Q4 results.

UTI AMC shares were up over 5 per cent after the company posted good results.

Himadri Speciality Chemical shares were up over 3 per cent after the company posted good Q4 numbers.'

Vedanta shares were up over 3 per cent after brokerages gave big targets after Q4 results.

Conversely, Bajaj Finance shares were down over 5 per cent after the company posted Q4 results.

L&T Technology Services shares were down over 8 per cent after the company released weak Q4 results.

Kotak Mahindra Bank shares were down over 10 per cent after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) last evening announced certain business restrictions on the private sector lender. 

GLOBAL MARKETS 

Asian shares rose cautiously on Friday as markets sobered up to the idea that U.S. rate cuts were most likely some time away, while the yen and Japanese government bonds struggled ahead of a closely watched policy decision by the Bank of Japan.

U.S. stock futures jumped after tech giants Alphabet and Microsoft reported quarterly results that beat Wall Street estimates. Nasdaq futures advanced more than 1 per cent, while S&P 500 futures rose 0.7 per cent.

(With inputs from agencies.)

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