Indian equities staged a sharp rebound on Friday morning after Thursday’s brutal selloff, with the Sensex jumping nearly 800 points and the Nifty reclaiming 22,450 in early trade. At around 10.47 AM, the BSE Sensex was up about 786 points, or 1.10 per cent, at roughly 72,379.61, while the NSE Nifty 50 gained about 258 points, or 1.16 per cent, to around 22,489.70. All Nifty sectoral indices were in the green, led by Nifty IT with gains of over 3 per cent.
The bounce came a day after the benchmarks were hammered to multi-year lows. On Thursday, the Sensex had crashed 1,045.46 points, or 1.44 per cent, to close at 71,593.24 — a 32-month low — while the Nifty tumbled 371.25 points, or 1.64 per cent, to 22,231.80, its lowest close in 18 months. More than ₹11 lakh crore of investor wealth was wiped out in that single session.
The star of Friday’s recovery was TCS. Shares of the IT bellwether surged nearly 5 per cent to ₹2,175.40 after its September-quarter results beat estimates: net profit rose 4 per cent quarter-on-quarter to ₹13,884 crore against an estimate of ₹13,788 crore, revenue climbed 1.3 per cent to ₹73,188 crore, and the EBIT margin held at 24 per cent. The company also declared an interim dividend of ₹12 per share with a record date of October 14, and said its annualised AI revenue had crossed $3 billion. Infosys, HCLTech and Tech Mahindra joined the rally, alongside banking heavyweights HDFC Bank, SBI and Axis Bank.
Market breadth was firmly positive and buying spread across sectors, with the recovery powered by a mix of oversold conditions and sector rotation into IT. The Q2 earnings season is now gathering pace, with Poonawalla Fincorp, Anand Rathi Wealth, Can Fin Homes, Canara Robeco Asset Management Company and HSBC Life Insurance Company all reporting today.
But the rally is not without its headwinds. Brent crude hovered near $104 a barrel after surging about 4 per cent on Thursday amid Middle East tensions and supply-disruption fears. Foreign portfolio investors sold a net ₹12,944 crore of Indian equities on Thursday — their biggest single-day outflow since May 29, 2026 — while domestic institutions bought ₹10,703 crore. A weaker rupee, which closed at 96.88 against the dollar, rising global bond yields, and the RBI’s 25-basis-point repo rate hike to 5.50 per cent earlier this week are all expected to cap gains.
Analysts say the morning rebound looks like a technical bounce from oversold levels rather than a decisive trend reversal. All figures here are morning-session readings and may change by the closing bell — investors would do well to watch crude, FPI flows and the evening’s earnings prints before calling this a bottom.
