Stocks ended Friday with a marginal gain, marking the third weekly rise in a row, as investors digested valuations trading near 4-month highs and traders refrained from adding to longs ahead of the weekend.

The Nifty closed 15 points higher at 8,793 points. It added 0.6 per cent for the week and has risen continuously since January 15 as a part of the pre-budget rally and then in the aftermath of the budget from February 1st. As a consequence, the Nifty is now quoting at its best level since October 5th.

Traders were also hesitant from taking aggressive bets ahead of the polling in Uttar Pradesh. Voting begins on Saturday in UP, where the ruling Samajwadi Party, in a pre-poll alliance with the Congress, is fighting to retain control of the most electorally important state. The Bharatiya Janata Party is battling the SP, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Rashtriya Lok Dal in the 5-phase poll that will end in March.

Meanwhile, banks were in the thick of action on Friday as the sector giant State Bank of India was to declare numbers. Traders also concentrated their energies on the sector in the aftermath of the Reserve Bank of India's surprise move to shift its `accommodative' stance on interest rates to `neutral', citing inflationary pressures in the economy.

State Bank of India, the nation's largest lender, announced higher quarterly profit even as the proxy to the economy battled to contain non performing assets and slowing credit growth.

State Bank said its third quarter profit rose to Rs 2,610 crore compared with Rs 1,115 crore in the year ago quarter. After tax earnings in Q3 were marginally ahead of the second quarter PAT and beat market expectations. SBI reported a third quarter Net Interest income of Rs. 14,572 crore versus Rs 13,697 crore a year ago.

The keenly watched figure of fresh slippages, which indicate more pain in the system were at Rs 10,185 crore, in line with street's estimates. Third quarter slippages were marginally below the Rs 10,341 crore clocked in the second quarter. State Bank fell 0.2 per cent to close at Rs 275 a piece.

Among other earnings, those from auto ancillary giant Bosch disappointed the street.

Here are the major trading events of the day:

* The Sensex closed flat at 28,334 points on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Adani Ports was the top gainer while ITC lost substantial ground. State Bank was the top traded stock by value on the Sensex.

* Grasim, Bank of Baroda, Tech Mahindra, TCS and Tata Steel surged 2.2-3.3 per cent and were among 26 stocks that rose on the Nifty.

* Aurobindo Pharma, Zee Entertainment, ITC, Lupin and Dr. Reddy's slipped 1.3-3.4 per cent on the Nifty and were among 25 decliners on the index.

* State Bank was the top traded stock by value with Rs 756 crore worth of shares changing hands. Grasim, TCS, Axis Bank and Infosys saw active trader interest on heavy volumes.

* Hectic volume activity was also seen in NHPC, Reliance Communications, Bank of Baroda and ICICI Bank.

* Broader markets were flat with little or no movement seen in the Nifty 100, 200 and 500 indices.

Mid caps and small caps were quiet too.

* The IT index was the only major gainer in the sectoral space, adding 2.2 per cent to its tally. Otherwise, losses were seen on pharma, metals, media and auto segments.

* Overall, the trend weakened in the broader market as the bulls took a break after a sharp upturn. As a consequence, 837 shares fell compared with 666 that rose.