Sensex, Nifty Up on GDP Data, FII Inflows

Mumbai, Mar 2 (PTI) Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty began the last part of the special trading session on Saturday on a buoyant note amid impressive GDP data and foreign fund inflows.

Leading stock exchanges BSE and NSE are conducting a special trading session in the equity and equity derivative segments on Saturday to check their preparedness to handle major disruption or failure at the primary site.

The special live trading session will have intra-day switch over from Primary Site (PR) to Disaster Recovery (DR) site.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was trading 128.7 points higher at 73,879.58 in the second part of the special trading session. The Nifty traded with a gain of 58.15 points at 22,396.90.

The first part of trading took place from 9:15 am to 10 am. The second one is from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm on the DR site, exchanges announced earlier.

"Trading members are requested to note that the exchange will conduct a special live trading session with intraday switch over from Primary Site (PR) to Disaster Recovery Site (DR) on Saturday, March 2, in equity and equity derivatives segments," BSE and NSE said in separate circulars.

Among the Sensex firms, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Asian Paints, ITC, Wipro and Larsen & Toubro were the major gainers.

Mahindra & Mahindra, NTPC, Kotak Mahindra Bank and UltraTech Cement were among the laggards.

India's economy grew by better-than-expected 8.4 per cent in the final three months of 2023 -- the fastest pace in one-and-half years.

The US markets ended with gains on Friday.

India's manufacturing sector growth climbed to a five-month high in February amid a sharper uptick in factory production and sales, supported by both domestic and external demand, a monthly survey said on Friday.

The seasonally adjusted HSBC India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose from 56.5 in January to 56.9 in February, pointing to the strongest improvement in the health of the sector since September 2023.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 128.94 crore on Friday, according to exchange data.

The BSE benchmark jumped 1,245.05 points or 1.72 per cent to finish at 73,745.35 on Friday. The Nifty climbed 355.95 points or 1.62 per cent to settle at 22,338.75.