Nifty reclaimed 25,000 and Sensex crossed 81,000 on Friday as Indian markets ignored a global tech rout. Sensex surged 1,718 points while Nifty gained 493.75 points. “Indian equities decoupled from a global rout on Friday in a manner we have rarely seen,” said Hemant Sood. Strong foreign buying drove this growth.
In what analysts called a rare decoupling, Indian equity markets closed sharply higher on Friday even as Wall Street’s worst session in over a year reverberated across Asian markets.
The Sensex surged 1,718 points or 2.17 per cent to close at 81,028, while the Nifty gained 493.75 points or 2.01 per cent to settle at 25,030, reclaiming the 25,000 mark for the first time in over eight months.
For the week, the Sensex gained close to 9 per cent and the Nifty around 8.6 per cent, among the strongest weekly performances in recent years.
“Indian equities decoupled from a global rout on Friday in a manner we have rarely seen,” said Hemant Sood, Founder and Managing Director of Findoc Group. “The driver is flows.”
After foreign institutional investors bought shares worth record ₹14,975 crore on Thursday in cash market, they bought another ₹13,749.82 crore on Friday, while domestic institutions sold ₹10,445 crore.
Private banks led sectoral gains, with the Nifty Private Bank index rising 3.22 per cent, followed by pharma, auto and consumer durables. Media was the session’s only notable laggard, shedding 1.47 per cent.
The global backdrop was sharply negative. The Nasdaq fell 5.52 per cent overnight, its worst session since April 2025, while the S&P 500 lost 4.36 per cent and the Dow dropped 3.45 per cent. Nvidia fell 9.3 per cent and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index declined over 12 per cent.
Japan’s Nikkei plunged roughly 5.9 per cent and South Korea’s Kospi lost over 8.5 per cent, briefly triggering a circuit breaker.
The selloff was linked to fears of tighter US regulatory scrutiny of AI infrastructure spending following Democratic gains in the midterm elections.
Indian IT stocks, however, proved resilient, with the Nifty IT index ending modestly higher. “Indian IT services are not AI hardware,” Sood noted. “India’s IT exposure is to enterprise spending, not to GPU capex.”
The rupee had its biggest single-day gain since October 12, strengthening to 93.80-93.90 against the dollar, a six-month high, supported by FII inflows and softer crude.
Brent crude, however, rebounded toward $100 per barrel following reports of fresh tanker incidents in the Strait of Hormuz, reversing some of Thursday’s sharp decline.
Gold slipped on COMEX to around $4,050 per ounce, while MCX gold fell to approximately ₹1,42,000 per 10 grams. “Bullion posted weekly gains of around 5 per cent, its strongest positive week since August,” said Jateen Trivedi of LKP Securities, adding that US Non-Farm Payrolls data due later would be crucial for the next move.
Broader markets did not fully participate in the rally. The Nifty Midcap 100 ended nearly flat while the Nifty Smallcap 100 declined 0.82 per cent, reflecting institutional capital concentrating in large liquid stocks rather than lifting the full market.
Looking ahead, analysts flagged the Nifty’s RSI at 78.55 as firmly overbought, suggesting some consolidation around 25,000 is possible.
“Trim positions that have run far ahead of earnings, keep allocations to quality and keep some cash for the volatility that a US correction can still deliver,” Sood said. Key triggers over the coming fortnight include whether US technology stocks stabilise, the sustainability of FII inflows, December Fed rate pricing following the payrolls report, and whether Brent crude holds below $100.