Indian equity benchmarks rebounded on Friday after seeing
a heavy drubbing in the previous trade, with the Sensex and Nifty surging
nearly 3% on the back of positive trends from global markets and
across-the-board buying. Index heavyweights Reliance Industries and HDFC twins
saw robust buying, lifting the benchmarks.

The BSE Sensex rallied 1,534.16 points or 2.91% to close
at 54,326.39. During the day, it surged 1,604.2 points or 3.03% to 54,396.43.
The broader NSE Nifty gained 456.75 points or 2.89% to settle at 16,266.15.

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The broader indices ended in green with the BSE Midcap
index up by 1.98% and the Smallcap index up by 2.13%.

On the sectoral front, the top gaining indices were
Realty up by 4.22%, Metal up by 3.75%, Capital Goods up by 3.14%, Industrials
up by 3.05% and Healthcare up by 3.04%, while there were no losing sectoral
indices on the BSE.

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Major gainers from the Sensex pack were Dr Reddy’s Labs
up by 8.10%, Reliance Industries up by 5.77%, Nestle up by 4.74%, Tata Steel up
by 4.22%, Larsen & Toubro up by 4.01%, Axis Bank up by 3.55%, Sun Pharma up
by 3.52%, State Bank of India up by 3.31%, and HDFC up by 3.13%, while there
were no losing stocks on the Sensex.

The BSE Sensex had plunged 1,416.30 points or 2.61% to
settle at 52,792.23 on Thursday. The NSE Nifty had tanked 430.90 points or
2.65% to close at 15,809.40.

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The rupee moved 3 paise higher to close at 77.53 per US
dollar.

Asian markets in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo
ended in the green.

European stock exchanges were also trading with
significant gains in the afternoon session.

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US stock markets had finished lower on Thursday.

Brent crude, the international oil benchmark slipped
0.11% to USD 111.9 per barrel.

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According to stock exchange data, foreign institutional
investors offloaded shares worth a net Rs 4,899.92 crore on Thursday.