Indian equity benchmarks gained for a second straight session on Friday, 16 October 2026, as a sharp rally in information technology shares offset profit-taking in energy, banking and consumer stocks, according to HDFC Sky’s market close report. The BSE Sensex rose 413.66 points, or 0.56 per cent, to end at 74,729.27, and the NSE Nifty 50 gained 148.80 points, or 0.65 per cent, to close at 23,146.15.
Those closing levels allow the previous closes to be worked out. The Sensex ended Thursday at about 74,315.61 and the Nifty at about 22,997.35, which are IndiaX24’s subtractions of the day’s gains from the closing figures. The Nifty therefore finished the week above the 23,000 mark that it had slipped below the day before.
The IT sector did the heavy lifting. The Nifty IT index rose about 4 per cent and was the best-performing sector, according to the report. Among Nifty 50 stocks, Tech Mahindra was the top gainer with a rise of 8.48 per cent, followed by TCS at 4.89 per cent, Infosys at 4.61 per cent, Bharti Airtel at 2.75 per cent and Mahindra & Mahindra at 2.07 per cent. A separate live blog quoted by IndiaX24’s search put Tech Mahindra up more than 7 per cent and Wipro up more than 5 per cent during the session, so the final closing percentage for Tech Mahindra is the higher figure above.
The biggest losers on the Nifty were InterGlobe Aviation, down 1.91 per cent, BSE Ltd, down 1.90 per cent, Max Healthcare, down 1.40 per cent, Tata Consumer Products, down 1.27 per cent, and Jio Financial Services, down 1.26 per cent. Metals, public-sector banks and infrastructure shares gained 1 to 2 per cent, while FMCG, oil and gas and pharma shares fell.
Breadth was only modestly positive. Some 2,221 shares advanced, 1,791 declined and 185 were unchanged, according to the report. That is a total of 4,197 stocks, and advancing shares were about 52.9 per cent of them, a share calculated by IndiaX24. The Nifty Midcap index fell 0.12 per cent and the Nifty Smallcap index was flat, so the rally was concentrated in large IT names and not spread across the market.
A regulatory decision helped sentiment. The Securities and Exchange Board of India eased its plan for derivatives settlement, moving it to a volume-weighted average price computed over the final 30 minutes of regular trading and reversing an earlier plan to use a closing auction, according to the report. The relief was described by the sources as a factor behind the buying, although the reports reviewed do not give the full text of the SEBI circular, so IndiaX24 describes only the change reported.
Global cues were also supportive. Lower US Treasury yields helped risk assets, and value buying followed a recent global sell-off in AI-related stocks, according to the report. Technology earnings that beat expectations also lifted the IT index, and the reports do not name which companies reported.
Crude oil remained a brake. Prices near 105 dollars a barrel constrained the broader rally, according to the report, which is an important cost for an economy that imports most of its oil. The reports reviewed do not give the Brent or WTI benchmark for that figure, so IndiaX24 does not specify it.
Two things are worth noting for readers. First, a one-day move of 0.56 per cent in the Sensex is small next to the 4 per cent move in the IT index, which shows how much of the day’s gain came from one sector. Second, foreign investors were net sellers earlier in the week, as IndiaX24 reports in a separate article, so the two-day recovery has so far come with weak foreign flows, according to the reports reviewed.
Markets are closed on the weekend. HDFC Bank, India’s largest private lender, reports its second-quarter results on Saturday, 17 October, its first under the new chief executive Anup Bagchi, and IndiaX24 has published a preview. The reaction will be seen when markets reopen on Monday.
This article is a report on market movements and is not investment advice.
Image: The BSE building (Bombay Stock Exchange) in Mumbai (file photo). Photo by Niyantha Shekhar, licensed under CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.