After a flat start, the bulls made a smart comeback on Dalal Street on Friday (April 28) amid across-the-board buying. At close, the S&P BSE Sensex stood at 61,112.44 levels, up 463 points, or 0.76 per cent while the NSE's Nifty topped the 18,000 level to end at 18,065, up 150 points, or 0.84 per cent. With today's gain, the indices logged five straight days of rally. 

Among Sensex stocks, Wipro topped the gainers' list with nearly 3 per cent gains to Rs 385.15 on the BSE, followed by Nestle India (up over 2.7 per cent) and SBI (up 2.3 per cent). On the flip side, Axis Bank (down over 2 per cent) and HCL Tech (down 0.75 per cent) were the biggest laggards.

On a weekly basis, Sensex gained 2.44 per cent and Nifty added 2.5 per cent.

"Despite concerns about potentially weaker US GDP numbers and high inflation, the stronger-than-expected earnings reported by Meta propelled IT stocks to the forefront of the Wall Street rally. The trend was reflected in the domestic market, as beaten-down IT stocks helped to lift broader market sentiment. However, with US inflation remaining high, the prospect of another rate hike by the Fed is looming, keeping global markets volatile in the coming days," Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said.

Broader market

The second-rung stocks outperformed the headline indices. The S&P BSE SmallCap index added 0.91 per cent to 28,917.07 levels while the S&P BSE MidCap index zoomed 1.32 per cent to 25,492.43 points.

Sector Watch

Barring Consumer Durables, all other sectors gained in the trade. The S&P BSE Telecommunication index gained the most - 2.44 per cent. Capital goods stocks, industrials, and information technology counters were other top gainers. 

Buzzing Stocks

Shares of PI Industries rallied more than 11 per cent on Friday, April 28 in the afternoon trade to hit a day high of Rs 3,412 after the company on Thursday announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary PI Health Sciences (PIHS) has entered a share purchase agreement with Therachem Research Medilab LLC (TRM). Tyremaker Ceat Ltd, too, jumped 11 per cent to Rs 1,559.50 on the BSE. Edelweiss Financial Services, meanwhile, zoomed over 16 per cent to Rs 66.47 levels.

Tech view

"Nifty on the weekly chart formed a long bull candle, that has negated the last week's bearish engulfing candle pattern and closed above it. Bank Nifty continued its upside momentum and is currently placed near the crucial hurdle at 43,500 levels. The short-term uptrend of Nifty remains intact and the market is expected to reach up to the next resistance of 18,200-18,300 levels in the next week. Immediate support is placed at 17,900 levels," said Nagaraj Shetti, Technical Research Analyst, at HDFC Securities.