NIFTY50 erases intraday gains, falls 283 points from day's high; SENSEX drops over 750 points

The Indian equity benchmarks came off intraday highs in noon deal on Friday, May 2. Earlier in the day, SENSEX rose as much as 936 points to hit an intraday high of 81,177.93 and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday high of 24,589.15. However, owing to profit booking at day's highest levels both the benchmarks fell from day's highs. The NIFTY50 index fell 239 points and SENSEX declined 705 points from day's high. As of 12:04 pm, the SENSEX was up 235 points at 80,476 and NIFTY50 index was trading flat at 24,334.55.

Analysts say that traders were resorting to profit booking ahead of weekend amid geo-political tensions between India and Pakistan in the aftermath of Pahalgam terror attack on April 22.

Robust GST collections

Indicators that Indian economy is on strong growth path led to optimism among market participants after Finance Ministry on Thursday reported GST collections for the month of April. GST collection rose 12.6% Y-o-Y to an all-time high of about ₹2.37 lakh crore in April, which the government said shows resilience of the Indian economy and the effectiveness of cooperative federalism.

The gross GST mop-up was ₹2.10 lakh crore in April 2024 -- the second highest collection ever since GST was rolled out on July 1, 2017. The net mop-up was ₹1.92 lakh crore.

In March 2025, the collection was ₹1.96 lakh crore.

Q4 earnings boost

Earnings reported by NIFTY50 companies in the fourth quarter of financial year 2024-25 have so far been in-line with estimates or exceeded estimates. Earnings reported by Adani group companies Adani Ports and Adani Enterprises surpassed street estimates on Thursday leading to surge in both the shares. Adani Ports shares rose as much as 5.60% and Adani Enterprises advanced as much as 2.72%.

Adani Ports and SEZ, the country's largest private port operator, on Thursday, May 1, reported a net profit of ₹3,014 crore for the January-March quarter (Q4 FY25), marking an increase of 48% from ₹2,040 crore logged in the same period last year.

Its revenue from operations rose 23% to ₹8,488 crore in the March quarter, as against ₹6,896.50 crore registered in the year-ago period.

Adani Ports' operating profit, also known as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA), rose 21% to ₹4,966 crore as against ₹ 4,102 crore in the same period last year.

Adani group's flagship company Adani Enterprises reported a net profit of ₹3,845 crore in the January-March quarter, marking an increase of 752% from ₹451 crore logged in the same period last year. The sharp jump in profit came on the back of an exceptional gain of ₹3,945.73 crore resulting from stake sales in Adani Wilmar (now known as AWL Agri Business).

Its revenue from operations, however, declined 7% to ₹27,601.64 crore as against ₹29,630 crore seen in the year-ago period.

FIIs remain net buyers

Consistent buying by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) is also adding to the bullish sentiment for the equities. FIIs bought shares worth ₹2,735.02 crore in April in cash segment. The FIIs have returned to emerging markets like India in the wake of fall in US dollar index.

Meanwhile, rupee's appreciation against the US dollar after hitting record low 0f 87.57 in February is also leading to FIIs turn net buyers.

The rupee appreciated 77 paise to 83.77 against the US dollar in early trade on Friday, supported by sustained foreign fund inflows and stronger domestic data.

Strong global cues

Most of the Asian markets were also trading higher giving a boost to risk assets after reports suggested that China on Friday said it is assessing whether to start trade talks with the US on tariff reductions following recent approaches by Washington, a move that would possibly ease the tit-for-tit tariff war between the world’s two largest economies, news agency Press Trust of India reported.

Japan's Nikkei rose 1.25%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed 1.67%, South Korea's KOSPI advanced 0.35% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.11%.

Overnight, Wall Street's main indexes jumped to around one-month highs on Thursday, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq leading gains, as strong quarterly results from heavyweights Microsoft and Meta pointed to a resilient outlook for the technology sector.

NIFTY50 gainers and losers

Adani Ports was top gainer in the NIFTY50 index, the stock rose over 5.5%. Maruti Suzuki, Eternal, Hindalco, IndusInd Bank and Adani Enterprises were also mong the gainers.

On the flipside, Eicher Motors, Nestle, Bajaj Auto, JSW Steel and Titan were among the laggards.

The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 2,275 shares were advancing while 1,190 were declining on the BSE.