Indian Stock Market Today: Dalal Street continued its Diwali celebrations on Friday, November 6, with benchmark indices extending their gains despite a massive technology-led sell-off across global markets.
Rising for the 7th day in a row, the Sensex surged over 846 points to cross the 80,000 mark, while the Nifty climbed towards 24,750, supported by strong buying in heavyweight banking, automobile, pharmaceutical and consumer stocks.
The resilience of Indian markets stood in stark contrast to the bloodbath in global markets, where technology and AI-linked stocks faced heavy selling amid concerns over stretched valuations and rising artificial intelligence spending. Despite the global risk-off sentiment, domestic equities continued to attract buying interest amid FPI buying, extending their winning streak to a seventh consecutive session.
At 1:30 pm, the BSE Sensex was trading at 80,156.11, up 846.10 points, or 1.07%. The index had opened at 79,413.66 and touched an intraday high of 80,231.60, crossing the 80,000 milestone convincingly.
The NSE Nifty 50 was trading at 24,729.90, gaining 193.30 points, or 0.79%, over its previous close of 24,536.60. The index touched an intraday high of 24,754.15.
The rally is particularly notable given the weakness in broader markets, where midcap and smallcap stocks continued to face selling pressure.
M&M, ICICI Bank, Titan lead Sensex gainers
Buying was visible across several heavyweight stocks, with Mahindra & Mahindra emerging as the biggest gainer among Sensex constituents.
M&M surged 4.48%, while ICICI Bank advanced 2.65% and Titan gained 2.45%. HDFC Bank climbed 2.39%, Sun Pharma rose 2.16% and Adani Ports gained 1.64%.
Kotak Mahindra Bank, NTPC, ITC, Axis Bank and UltraTech Cement were among the other notable gainers.
On the losing side, Power Grid declined 1.48%, BEL fell 1.13%, IndiGo dropped 0.89%, Asian Paints lost 0.67% and Bajaj Finance slipped 0.61%.
Banking and pharma stocks power rally
Among sectoral indices, Nifty Private Bank was the biggest gainer, advancing 1.59%. Nifty Pharma rose 1.04%, while Nifty Bank and Nifty Financial Services gained 0.93% and 0.92%, respectively.
Nifty Healthcare and Nifty Consumer Durables also traded higher.
However, the recovery remained uneven. Nifty Realty declined 1.56%, Nifty Media fell 1.40%, Nifty Chemicals lost 1.23% and Nifty Metal dropped 0.93%. The Nifty IT index was marginally lower.
Midcap, smallcap stocks fail to participate
Despite the strong rally in frontline indices, broader markets continued to underperform. The Nifty Midcap 100 declined 0.90%, while the Nifty Smallcap 100 dropped 1.56%. The Nifty Smallcap 250 and Nifty Smallcap 500 fell 1.55% and 1.59%, respectively.
The Nifty Next 50 was down 1.18%.
This divergence highlights the concentration of buying in select large-cap stocks rather than a broad-based recovery across the market.
India VIX jumps over 9%
The India VIX surged 9.24% to 17.02, after touching an intraday high of 17.22. The sharp increase in the volatility gauge, even as the Sensex and Nifty rallied, suggests that traders remain cautious about the near-term market outlook.
Why are Indian markets outperforming global equities?
The resilience of Indian equities comes against the backdrop of a severe global technology sell-off. On Thursday, the Nasdaq Composite plunged 5.52%, its biggest single-day decline in 19 months, while the S&P 500 fell 4.36% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 3.44%.
The sell-off extended to Asian markets on Friday. South Korea’s Kospi plunged as much as 8.8%, triggering a circuit breaker, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 declined more than 6% during the session. Technology and semiconductor stocks bore the brunt of the selling.
Concerns over stretched AI valuations, the sustainability of massive investments in data centres and the possibility of tighter US regulatory scrutiny following the Democrats’ election gains have triggered a reassessment of technology stocks.
India, meanwhile, has benefited from its relatively limited direct exposure to the global AI hardware trade, improving foreign investor flows and a shift in global portfolio positioning towards markets outside the crowded AI trade, according to Reuters.
FII buying returns; crude oil remains a key factor
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) purchased Indian equities worth Rs 14,975 crore on November 5, marking their biggest single-day net buying in more than a year. Domestic institutional investors, however, remained net sellers, offloading shares worth Rs 10,445 crore.
The return of foreign buying has provided an important tailwind to the domestic market after a prolonged period of overseas outflows.
Crude oil remains another crucial variable. Brent crude rebounded towards $100 per barrel amid renewed concerns over geopolitical tensions and tanker attacks near the Strait of Hormuz. Higher oil prices remain a potential risk for India, given its dependence on imported energy.
