Sensex, Nifty close higher for second straight session; IT, banking shares top gainers

Equity markets extended their rally on Friday, with Sensex and Nifty ending over 1 per cent higher each, in line with a positive trend in global equities. Sensex rallied 632.13 points or 1.17 per cent to end at 54,884.66. The benchmark zoomed 684.1 points or 1.26 per cent intraday to 54,936.63. Nifty jumped 182.30 points or 1.13 per cent to close at 16,352.45.

Tech Mahindra, IndusInd Bank, Wipro, Bajaj Finance, Infosys, Bajaj Finserv, Larsen & Toubro, and HCL Technologies were the top Sensex gainers, rising up to 4.10 per cent.

NTPC, Bharti Airtel, Power Grid, Tata Steel, Reliance Industries, Asian Paints, and Nestle were the top losers, falling up to 2.43 per cent.

"Joining the global rally, the investors were in a buying mood following favourable retail earnings in the US. Receding FII selling also provided comfort to the domestic market in bringing down volatility," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

Among 17 BSE sectoral indices, IT and banking shares were the top gainers, with their indices rising 676 points and 549 points, respectively.

Market cap of BSE-listed firms rose to Rs 253.13 lakh crore on BSE.

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Market breadth was positive with 2215 shares ending higher against 1109 shares closing lower on BSE. 124 shares were unchanged.

Foreign institutional investors continued their selling spree as they offloaded shares worth a net Rs 1,597.84 crore on Thursday, as per stock exchange data.

Deepak Jasani, head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities said, "Nifty gained for the second consecutive week rising 0.53% for the week. Sentiments seem to have turned for the better over the past two days. A move above 16414 could take the Nifty swiftly to 16624 and later 16825. However, 16,006 support needs to be protected."

On Thursday, Sensex rose 457 points to 54,709 and Nifty gained 126 points to 16,296. The market snapped its three-session losing streak in the previous session. Tata Steel SBI, HDFC Bank,intraday and Axis Bank were among the top Sensex gainers, rising up to 5.27 percent. Sun Pharma, RIL, HUL, and L&T were the top Sensex losers, falling up to 1.16 percent.

Global markets

Elsewhere in Asia, markets in Seoul, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Hong Kong ended higher. Markets in Europe were also trading in the positive territory in the afternoon trade. Stock markets in the US had ended significantly higher on Thursday.

International oil benchmark Brent crude gained 0.95 per cent to $118.5 per barrel.