A man walks past the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) building, in Mumbai. File
| Photo Credit: PTI

Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty surged in early trade on Friday (May 2, 2025) amid optimism surrounding a potential India-U.S. trade deal, record high GST collection in April, and continuous foreign fund inflows. Moreover, a firm trend in global markets also added to the optimism in equities.

The 30-share Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) benchmark gauge jumped 500.81 points to 80,743.05 in early trade. The NSE Nifty surged 110.65 points to 24,444.85. Later, the Sensex quoted 816.41 points up at 81,064.47, and the Nifty climbed 222.30 points to 24,556.50.

From the Sensex firms, Adani Ports jumped nearly 5% after the firm reported a 50% in its March quarter net profit and issued a higher year-on-year revenue growth forecast for the current fiscal, citing strong growth in port volumes and a robust rise in the logistics business.

Maruti, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Eternal and Mahindra & Mahindra were also among the gainers while Nestle, Titan, Bajaj Finserv and Hindustan Unilever were the laggards.

The surprising resilience of the market has been primarily driven by the sustained Foreign Institutional Investor (FII) buying for eleven trading days in a row taking the cumulative FII buying for this period to ₹37,375 crore, V.K. Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Investments Limited, said.

“FII buying has been driven by weakness in the dollar and declining growth prospects in the U.S.. Other macros like declining interest rates in India, decline in crude prices, and green shoots of pickup in demand are positives for the market. The high probability of India among the five ‘allies’ of the US entering into early trade deals with the U.S. is also a significant positive factor,” he added.

Goods and Services Tax (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 the resilience of the Indian economy and the effectiveness of cooperative federalism.

“Domestically, the market sentiment remains upbeat due to continued FII buying, strong quarterly earnings, record high GST collection during the month of April, and a drop in oil prices to a three-month low of $61 per barrel,” Vikas Jain, Head of Research at Reliance Securities, said.

In Asian markets, South Korea’s Kospi index, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng were trading in the positive territory while Shanghai SSE Composite index quoted marginally lower.

U.S. markets ended in the positive zone on Thursday.

“Positive triggers include record GST collections (₹2.37 lakh crore), renewed FII interest in India, and upbeat cues from global markets like the Dow’s 8-day rally,” Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd, said.

Optimism returned Friday morning as Asian markets and US futures rose after China signaled willingness for tariff talks, he added.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.69% to $62.56 a barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth ₹50.57 crore on Wednesday (April 30), according to exchange data.

Equity markets were closed on Thursday (May 1) for ‘Maharashtra Day’.

The 30-share BSE benchmark gauge declined 46.14 points or 0.06% to settle at 80,242.24 on Wednesday (April 30). The Nifty ended marginally lower by 1.75 points or 0.01% at 24,334.20.