Benchmark equity indices ended with weekly gains after two consecutive weeks of losses. Both the Nifty and Sensex recorded their highest closing since Aug. 2 on Friday as shares of financials and technology companies led the gains.
Only three out of the Nifty 50 stocks ended with losses and 47 ended higher. Both the Nifty and Sensex closed at their highest levels since Aug. 2.
The Nifty ended 1.64% or 396.80 points higher at 24540.55 while the Sensex rose 1.68% or 1,330.96 points to end at 80436.84. Intraday, the Nifty rose 1.74% and the Sensex rose 1.79%.
"The market focus will now shift towards macro data, monetary policy action and geo-political events," said Shrikant Chouhan, head of equity research at Kotak Securities.
On similar lines, Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Financial Services said that domestically, the Indian CPI inflation rate has fallen below the estimate, signalling optimism. "However, challenges such as a drop in WPI inflation, weak IIP, and lukewarm Q1 corporate earnings suggest that market gains may be limited, which is reflected by FIIs maintaining a net seller position," he said.
Shares of HDFC Bank Ltd., ICICI Bank Ltd., Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., Infosys Ltd., and Reliance Industries Ltd. contributed the most to the gains.
Meanwhile, those of Divi's Laboratories Ltd., SBI Life Insurance Ltd., and Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd. were the only stocks that limited the upside.
Market breadth was skewed in favour of buyers. Around 2,475 stocks advanced, 1,454 stocks declined, and 107 stocks remained unchanged on BSE.
Broader markets rose in line with the benchmark indices. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices ended 1.81% and 1.69% higher, respectively.
On BSE, all 20 sectors ended higher on Friday, with the BSE IT index logging the most gain to become the best performing sector.
Weekly Performance
This week, the Nifty added 0.71% and the Sensex rose 0.92%. Nifty IT gained the most by nearly 5% during the week and Nifty PSU Bank closed the week 2.15% lower.
. Read more on Market Wrap Newsletter by NDTV Profit.