The Indian stock markets ended on a strong note on Friday, supported by robust buying in auto, information technology (IT), and banking stocks.
At the close, the Sensex surged 964.58 points, or 1.25 per cent, to settle at 78,151.45, while the Nifty climbed 261.55 points, or 1.09 per cent, to close at 24,334.30. For the week, the BSE Sensex gained 0.5 per cent and the Nifty rose 0.7 per cent.
Among the sectoral indices, Nifty Private Bank emerged as the top gainer, rising 2 per cent. It was followed by Nifty IT, which advanced 1.7 per cent, and Nifty Bank, which gained 1.6 per cent. Nifty Auto and Nifty Realty rose 1.3 per cent each, while Nifty Oil & Gas gained 1 per cent and Nifty FMCG added 0.7 per cent.
On the other hand, Nifty Pharma declined 1.4 per cent, while the Nifty Metal index fell 0.4 per cent.
Nearly 100 stocks touched their 52-week highs on the BSE. These included Federal Bank, Sona BLW Precision Forgings, Exide Industries, Himadri Speciality Chemical, Adani Energy Solutions, Ipca Laboratories, Oracle Financial Services Software, Gujarat Fluorochemicals, Piramal Finance, and BHEL, among others.
The Indian rupee snapped its four-day losing streak and ended 7 paise higher at 96.28 against the US dollar.
On the Nifty, 37 stocks ended in positive territory. Reliance Industries, Jio Financial Services, Tech Mahindra, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, and HDFC Bank were among the top gainers. On the other hand, Hindalco Industries, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, and Wipro were the top laggards.
Federal Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank also led the gains, rising 2 per cent each.
The rally was driven largely by IT stocks amid the ongoing June quarter earnings season. Infosys, Tech Mahindra, and HCL Technologies rose more than 3 per cent each. They were followed by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Persistent Systems, Mphasis, and LTIMindtree, which also posted healthy gains.