Market Wrap: Sensex, Nifty Extend Winning Streak Despite Friday Slip; Wall Street Hits Record Highs on Weak Jobs Data; Gold Rallies Sharply, Crude Slides
Global markets diverged sharply this week: Wall Street surged to fresh record highs on hopes of Federal Reserve rate cuts after a surprisingly weak US jobs report, while Asian markets were split between a China-led rally and profit-booking in Japan and South Korea. Indian benchmarks notched a second straight week of gains despite a weak Friday session, as the RBI held rates steady and gold prices surged on global rate-cut bets.
Indian Markets: Sensex, Nifty Log Second Straight Weekly Gain Despite Friday Pullback
The BSE Sensex closed Friday's session at 78,499.17, down 455.59 points or 0.58%, while the NSE Nifty 50 slipped 65.35 points (0.27%) to end at 24,570.65, as financial stocks and rising crude oil prices weighed on sentiment amid renewed West Asia tensions. Despite the Friday decline, the Sensex gained 404.53 points, or 0.5%, for the week, while the Nifty added 187.05 points, or 0.8%, extending its winning streak to a second consecutive week, led by gains in PSU and metal counters.
The week's key event was the RBI's Monetary Policy Committee meeting on August 5, where Governor Sanjay Malhotra's panel unanimously kept the repo rate unchanged at 5.25% while maintaining a neutral stance amid uncertainty around the southwest monsoon. The RBI also trimmed its inflation projection for the current fiscal year by 10 basis points to 5%, with quarterly estimates of 4.7% for Q2, 5.9% for Q3 and 5.5% for Q4 of FY27. On the earnings front, Hindalco Industries rallied after posting a 75% year-on-year jump in consolidated net profit to ₹7,013 crore, driven by strong performance at its Novelis subsidiary, while State Bank of India reported its best asset quality in over two decades. Market trends through the week were also shaped by the newly implemented Closing Auction Session (CAS) mechanism for determining closing prices.
Asian Markets: China Rallies on Stimulus Hopes as Japan, Korea Slip on Tech Weakness
Asian markets closed the week on a mixed note, with a clear divergence between mainland China/Hong Kong and Japan/South Korea. China's Shanghai Composite extended its winning streak, closing at 3,940.04, up 1.02% on Friday, taking its weekly gain to roughly 2.8% on broad-based buying led by solar stocks and continued optimism around Beijing's economic stimulus measures. Hong Kong's Hang Seng also found support from the same themes, though it eased slightly for the week to 25,668.03.
By contrast, Japan's Nikkei 225 dipped 0.12% on Friday to 65,606.71, though it still ended the week up close to 1.9% overall. South Korea's Kospi was the region's weakest performer, falling 0.60% on Friday to 6,258.71 — a weekly decline of roughly 5.1% — as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix came under heavy foreign selling pressure despite reporting record revenues, with investors booking profits and questioning whether AI infrastructure spending could sustain current valuations following the index's record 18% single-day rebound the previous week. Goldman Sachs, however, maintained a bullish view on the memory chip sector, citing persistent DRAM supply shortages that could last through 2030.
US Markets: S&P 500, Nasdaq Hit Record Closes as Weak Jobs Data Fuels Rate-Cut Hopes
US equities delivered their best week since April, with the S&P 500 climbing 0.62% on Friday to a record close of 7,757.64, the Nasdaq Composite surging 1.3% to 26,690.62, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average adding 151.83 points, or 0.28%, to 54,036.93. For the week, the S&P 500 gained approximately 3.6%, the Nasdaq jumped around 5.2%, and the Dow rose close to 3.0%, marking a second consecutive winning week for the major indexes.
The catalyst was Friday's July employment report, which showed the US economy unexpectedly lost 23,000 nonfarm jobs against expectations for a gain of roughly 80,000, along with downward revisions of more than 100,000 jobs to the prior two months' data. The weak labor market data all but eliminated expectations of a Federal Reserve rate hike in September, with market breadth notably strong — advancing stocks outnumbered decliners by roughly 2-to-1 on both the NYSE and Nasdaq. Semiconductor stocks staged a notable rebound during the week, with the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) gaining more than 7%, while Elon Musk's SpaceX surged nearly 19% over the week on growing investor optimism.
Crude Oil: Brent Slides Over 7% for the Week Amid Easing Tensions
Crude oil prices fell sharply this week, with Brent crude dropping 7.29% to settle at $82.21 per barrel, even though the benchmark remains up nearly 13% over the past month. WTI crude eased in tandem to around $78 per barrel. The decline reflected a combination of easing Middle East shipping risks and improving prospects for a de-escalation in the region, though prices ticked higher intermittently through the week on renewed Strait of Hormuz jitters and West Asia tensions.
Gold and Silver Prices in India Today
Gold and silver rallied sharply in India this week, tracking a strong global bullion rally driven by growing bets on a US interest rate cut this month. As of today:
- 24-carat gold: approximately ₹14,970-15,130 per gram (around ₹1,49,700-1,51,330 per 10 grams)
- 22-carat gold: approximately ₹13,700-13,725 per gram
- 18-carat gold: approximately ₹11,230 per gram
- Silver: approximately ₹2,35,000-2,40,000 per kilogram
Comex gold and silver both posted strong overnight gains this week, with silver in particular spiking more than 5% in a single session — one of its sharpest moves in recent months. Prices vary by city due to local levies and making charges, with Chennai typically carrying a small premium. These figures exclude GST and other applicable charges; given the sharp rally, it's worth checking a live rate before publishing.
Rupee and Currency Markets
The Indian rupee held relatively stable this week, with the US dollar hovering near its multi-month highs against the rupee amid pressure from elevated crude prices and global capital flow dynamics earlier in the week, before easing slightly by Friday. USD/INR was trading around ₹95.1-95.35 today, little changed from where it started the week.
Against other major currencies, the rupee stood at approximately:
- 1 US Dollar (USD) ≈ ₹95.2
- 1 Euro (EUR) ≈ ₹109.5
- 1 British Pound (GBP) ≈ ₹128.5
- 100 Japanese Yen (JPY) ≈ ₹60.4
Outlook
With US rate-cut expectations now firmly back on the table following the weak jobs report, risk sentiment looks constructive heading into next week, though investors will watch upcoming US CPI and PPI inflation data closely for confirmation of the Fed's likely path. In India, market participants will track the ongoing Q1 earnings season alongside crude oil price movements and any further developments in West Asia. Meanwhile, the divergence between China's stimulus-driven rally and profit-taking in Korean and Japanese tech stocks suggests the AI trade remains far from settled, even as gold's sharp rally underscores lingering caution among global investors.
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*Note: Intraday prices for gold, silver, currencies, and crude fluctuate through the trading session — figures above reflect rates as reported through Friday, August 7, 2026.*