Closing Bell: Sensex jumps 712 points, Nifty up 228 points

Indian equity benchmarks extended their rally for the third day on Friday, with the Sensex and the Nifty surging over 1%, following buying in index heavyweights Reliance Industries, Infosys, and HDFC twins. Largely buoyant global trends also supported indices to continue their winning streak.

The Sensex jumped 712.46 points or 1.25% to close at 57,570.25. During the day, it touched 761.48 points or 1.33% to 57,619.27. The Nifty surged 228.65 points or 1.35% to 17,158.26.

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The broader indices ended in the green, with the BSE Midcap index up by 1.01%, while the Small cap index was up by 1.38%. The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal up by 4.59%, Energy up by 2.41%, Basic Materials up by 2.30%, Oil & Gas up by 2.21%, and IT up by 1.71%, while there were no losing sectoral indices on the BSE.

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Top gainers from the Sensex pack were Tata Steel up by 7.08%, Bajaj Finserv up by 3.19%, Bajaj Finance up by 2.43%, Infosys up by 2.05%, IndusInd up by 1.98%, HDFC up by 1.93%, Wipro up by 1.75%, Asian Paints up by 1.62% and Reliance up by 1.75%.

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Among the losers were Dr Reddy’s Labs down by 3.96%, Kotak Mahindra down by 0.97%, SBI down by 0.77%, ITC down by 0.13%, and Axis Bank down by 0.06%.

“In India, the big positive for the market is FIIs reducing their selling substantially and even turning buyers for eight days this month. The expected outperformance of financials has played out well. Q1 results indicate improving prospects for this segment,” said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

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The rupee gained 45 paise to close at 79.24 against the US dollar.

Asian markets ended mostly lower, with the Shanghai Composite falling 0.89%, the Hang Seng tumbled 2.26%, the Nikkei 225 slipped 0.05%, while the KOSPI Composite gained 0.67%.

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European markets were trading in the green during mid-session deals. The US stock markets had closed higher on Thursday.

Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, jumped 1.92% to $109.2 per barrel.

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According to the stock exchange data, foreign institutional investors turned net buyers in the capital markets as they bought shares worth Rs 1,637.69 crore on Thursday.