By Malvika Gurung
Investing.com -- Indian equity benchmark indices traded higher on Friday, following mixed cues from Asian peers as Wall Street ended the overnight session on a mixed note. Market participants await US Nonfarm Payrolls data due later in the day for more clarity on the Fed’s rate hike move at the September monetary policy meet.
Headline indices Nifty50 traded 0.41% higher at 19,332.55 levels at 12:20 pm, rising to 19,350.75 in the intraday trade, while Sensex added 186.42 points or 0.3% while writing.
The Indian market volatility barometer India VIX tumbled 13.7% on Friday and was last seen trading 4.6% lower at 11.5 levels.
Metal and auto stocks led the gains on Dalal Street, with buying seen across all the sectors barring pharmaceuticals.
Under the Nifty umbrella, Nifty Metal jumped 2.8% with 14 out of 15 constituent stocks trading in the green. Nifty IT and Nifty Auto also surged. Nifty Bank was seen trading 0.12% higher.
The demerged financial services undertaking of Reliance Industries Ltd (NS:RELI), Jio Financial Services (NS:JIOF) was the top gainer or best performer on Nifty 50, followed by state-owned heavyweights ONGC (NS:ONGC) and NTPC (NS:NTPC).
Tata Steel (NS:TISC), SBI Life (NS:SBIL), Hindalco (NS:HALC) and Coal India (NS:COAL) were among the market heavyweights leading the Nifty pack, while Divi's Labs (NS:DIVI) and HDFC Bank (NS:HDBK) added pressure.