Indian shares jumped on Friday, recording a second straight week of gains, as hopes the government would look for a compromise with the Opposition leaders to pass a key reform on goods and services tax (GST) lifted the sentiment.

The gains came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's office said Modi was due to meet the Opposition Congress party leader, Sonia Gandhi, on Friday evening to discuss the GST reform and other Bills to be debated in the Winter Session of Parliament.

“I am optimistic something should happen,’’ said Jayant Manglik, president of retail distribution, Religare Securities, adding he was hoping so because “This government is also very keen to get it through and the Opposition is also talking about it’.’’

The broader NSE index was up 58.9 points or 0.75 per cent at 7,942.70. The benchmark BSE index ended higher by 169.57 points or 0.65 per cent at 26,128.20.

RBI policy review

The gains came ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s policy review on Tuesday where the central bank is expected to hold its policy interest rate at 6.75 per cent.

Gains were led by financial stocks with investors buying beaten-down bank stocks.

Top five Sensex gainers were Hindalco (+3.26%), SBIN (+2.8%), L&T (+2.23%), ICICI Bank (+1.97%) and Vedanta (+1.72%), while the major losers were Tata Motors (-1.32%), Lupin (-1.24%), Reliance (-0.88%), Maruti (-0.68%) and Bajaj Auto (-0.55%).

Among BSE sectoral indices, banking index gained the most by 1.86 per cent, followed by capital goods 1.53 per cent, PSU 0.91 per cent and IT 0.74 per cent. On the other hand, consumer durables index was down 1.38 per cent, followed by oil & gas 0.21 per cent and auto 0.13 per cent.

Early trade

The 30-share Sensex, which has gained 182.89 points in the previous session, advanced by 64.11 points or 0.24 per cent to 26,022.74 in early trade.

Also, the NSE Nifty reclaimed the crucial 7,900-level by surging 26.80 points or 0.33 per cent to 7,910.60.

Brokers said building-up of fresh positions by participants, following beginning of the December month F&O series helped the Sensex gain.

A top European share index fell from a three-month high on Friday, hit by a drop in the mining sector after a slump in Chinese equities which was triggered by weak data and a regulatory crackdown.

The FTSEurofirst 300 was down 0.7 per cent at 1,505.51 points by 0806 GMT, dropping after posting its highest close since August on Thursday.

Asian shares fell and the dollar held near an 8-1/2-month peak on Friday, while the euro hovered around seven-month lows on expectations of additional stimulus from the European Central Bank next week.

The broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside of Japan slid 0.5 per cent, extending losses for the week to 0.7 per cent.

The US markets were closed yesterday for the Thanksgiving Day holiday.

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