Benchmark indices extended their winning run to seven sessions on Dhanteras, led by banks and backed by heavy foreign buying, while small-cap stocks slipped.
Indian equity benchmarks closed sharply higher on Friday for a seventh consecutive session, with the Nifty 50 ending above 25,000 for the first time since 27 February, the last trading day before US and Israeli strikes on Iran began.
The Sensex rose 1,718.01 points, or 2.17%, to 81,028.02, while the Nifty gained 493.75 points, or 2.01%, to 25,030.35, according to exchange data. The Nifty’s seven-session streak is its longest in 14 months, and the Sensex’s its longest in 26 months. Over the seven sessions, the Sensex has added about 7,780 points, or 10.6%, and the Nifty about 2,330 points, or 10.3%.
The session itself showed steady conviction rather than a single burst of buying. The Nifty opened flat despite weak overnight cues from Wall Street, strengthened gradually through the day and closed near its intraday high.
Private sector banks were the strongest performers, while the Nifty Media index declined the most. The gains, however, were confined largely to the heaviest stocks in the index. The Nifty Midcap 100 ended almost unchanged, down 0.02%, and the Nifty Smallcap 100 fell 0.82%, reversing the pattern of earlier in the week, when smaller companies outperformed.
The concentration of gains among large companies is consistent with the source of the buying. Foreign institutional investors purchased a net ₹14,975 crore of Indian shares on Thursday, provisional data showed, their largest single-day purchase in more than a year. Foreign funds typically direct their money towards large, liquid index constituents, and banks make up the largest share of the Nifty.
The advance came against a weak global backdrop. US stocks suffered their steepest declines since April 2025 on Thursday, when the Nasdaq Composite fell 5.5% into correction territory on concerns over tighter regulation of artificial intelligence, and chip stocks in South Korea and Japan fell sharply on Friday.
Still lagging for the year
Despite the recovery, Indian shares remain lower for 2026. The Nifty is down about 4.2% for the year and the Sensex about 4.9%, compared with a gain of about 7% in the MSCI Emerging Markets index. India’s underperformance this year has been driven by high oil prices during the Iran conflict, the rupee’s decline and sustained foreign selling, which reached a record.
Two of those pressures have eased this week. Brent crude fell to $94.62 a barrel on Wednesday after the US midterm elections raised expectations of a settlement, and the rupee strengthened. Both have since partly reversed, with Brent trading back near $100 on Friday and the rupee opening weaker at 94.50 a dollar.
Markets will hold a one-hour Muhurat trading session on Sunday, beginning at 2:20 PM, to mark the start of Samvat 2083. Regular trading resumes on Monday, and markets will be closed on Tuesday for Diwali Balipratipada. The direction of crude prices and of foreign investor flows, which may be affected by a stronger-than-expected US jobs report on Friday, are likely to determine whether the rally extends into the new Samvat year.
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