Today, the Indian headline indices- Sensex and Nifty ended higher on account of a rally in banking stocks after the Axis Bank declared robust results for the January-March quarter on Thursday. Softening of crude oil prices also led to a rally in the stock market. Today, while the Sensex ended 336.47 points up at 39,067.33 level, Nifty also settled over 11,7500 mark.

 

Softening of crude oil prices: The crude oil prices softened on Friday on account of expectations that the organisation of the petroleum exporting countries or OPEC will increase output to compensate for the supply constraints due to US sanctions on Iran.  Today, international Brent crude future was at $73.27 per barrel, 2.11% lower than the last close and WTI crude was at $64.29 a barrel, around 2% less than the previous close. On, Thursday, the crude oil crossed $75 level for the first time in 2019. This week, crude oil prices have been on the rally after the US announced it would end the sanction waivers granted to the oil importers including India of Iranian oil.

 

 Banking stocks: After the Axis Bank announced stellar results for the Jan-Mar quarter, the other banking stocks also surged higher and ended in the green. While ICICI Bank ended around 12 points higher at Rs 407.20, the HDFC Banks shares also settled higher by 12.35 points at Rs 2,275.80. Other Banking stocks like Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra and Yes also got a boost and ended higher.   

 

Metal stocks: Today, Tata Steel was the top gainer among Nifty Fifty. It ended higher than 7% at Rs 11,754 on NSE. It posted strong quarterly results on Thursday. On a consolidated basis, the company reported growth in the volume of 28.5% to 7.52 million tonne, due to the acquisition of Bhushan Steel. However, the net profit of the company plunged 84% in the last quarter of FY19 on account of an on-time gain in the previous quarter. Stocks of JSW Steel and Hindalco also got support from Tata Steel and they also rallied on Friday. While JSW shares soared more than 7% to Rs 294, HINDALCO shares also jumped about 5% to Rs 201.50.