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Indian shares rose more than 1 per cent on Friday, posting their fourth straight session of gains and the best weekly jump in 12 weeks, after companies such as Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd posted upbeat earnings.
The broader NSE index closed up 87 points or 1.08 per cent at 8,156.65, while the benchmark BSE index surged 286.92 points or 1.09 per cent to end at 26,653.60.
Both the indexes posted their biggest weekly gain since March 4.
Barring FMCG, all other BSE sectoral indices ended in the green. Among them, oil & gas index gained the most by 2.66 per cent, healthcare 2.42 per cent, PSU 1.65 per cent and realty 1.51 per cent, while FMCG index was down 0.01 per cent.
Top five Sensex gainers were State Bank of India (+6.42%), Sun Pharma (+5.83%), Adani Ports (+3.65%), Reliance (+2.75%) and Bajaj Auto (+2.49%), while the major losers were ONGC (-1.64%), Axis Bank (-1.17%), ITC (-0.79%), NTPC (-0.71%) and BHEL (-0.19%).
Shares of Bharat Petroleum Corp jumped as much as 10.6 per cent to a record high after the company reported upbeat March-quarter results. It closed up 9.2 per cent.
Shares of State Bank of India Ltd surged 6.4 per cent, the biggest daily percentage gain since March 2, after certain elements of its results, including profit after tax, comforted investors despite it posting worse-than-expected earnings
Economic recovery
Improving earnings have raised optimism for a broader-based economic recovery, especially at a time when investors are betting monsoon rains will be stronger than average this year.
Mirroring the optimism, foreign investors have bought Indian shares worth a net $119.73 million so far this month, taking this year's inflows to $1.92 billion.
“Earnings have improved overall and this quarter's results have surprised markets positively,” said Vaibhav Agrawal, vice-president & head of research at Angel Broking.
“India's macros and consumer-driven sectors are doing quite well and there is a clear-cut optimism that growth will pick up.”
Brokers said creation of fresh long positions in the F&O segment and sustained foreign fund inflows also buoyed the domestic sentiment.
The US dollar rose on Friday while world stock markets were steady, as investors braced for the likelihood of a hike in US interest rates in coming months.
The MSCI All-Country World equity index edged higher by 0.1 per cent.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of leading European shares slipped 0.1 per cent but remained in touching distance of a one-month reached earlier this week..
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