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Domestic shares rose for a second consecutive session on Friday as lenders rallied after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the government would soon announce new measures to tackle bad debt, but the indexes posted their first weekly loss in three.
The broader NSE index ended 21.7 points or 0.2 per cent higher at 9,108.00, but dropped 0.6 percent for the week.
The benchmark BSE index closed 89.24 points or 0.3 per cent higher at 29,421.40, but slid 0.8 per cent for the week.
The Government and the Reserve Bank of India would announce the measures in “a couple of days", Jaitley had said yesterday.
Lenders also got a boost from expectation of good demand for YES Bank's up to $750-million share sale announced on Thursday.
Among BSE sectoral indices, banking index gained the most by 1.24 per cent, followed by PSU 0.97 per cent, realty 0.39 per cent and consumer durables 0.37 per cent. On the other hand, IT index was down 0.81 per cent, TECk 0.68 per cent, healthcare 0.29 per cent and auto 0.04 per cent.
Top five Sensex gainers were ICICI Bank (+2.9%), SBI (+2.81%), GAIL (+1.17%), ITC (+1.13%), and Reliance (+0.95%), while the major losers were TCS (-1.31%), Lupin (-0.94%), Bajaj Auto (-0.93%), Infosys (-0.85%) and Adani Ports (-0.62%).
Bharti Airtel, which took a beating in the last two sessions, gained on news reports that the teleocm giant has entered into a pact to buy Tikona Networks’ 4G spectrum.
“YES Bank's Qualified Institutional Placement yesterday was subscribed at almost Rs 1,500 per share and this has improved the sentiment in the sector, resulting in a rally in bank stocks. The finance minister's statement on the NPAs issue too was a positive,” said Rakesh Tarway, head of research at Reliance Securities Ltd.
ICICI Bank and State Bank of India were among the top gainers on the Nifty 50 index. YES Bank rose as much as 1.72 per cent.
Bharat Petroleum Corp was the top loser as oil retailers fell after CLSA analysts forecast a weak January-March quarter for major oil marketing companies.
Asian shares
The dollar recouped a little lost ground on Friday amid signs a delayed vote on President Donald Trump's Healthcare Bill would go ahead later in the day, though it remained unclear whether it would pass.
Investors regard the vote as test for the Trump presidency that could show whether it can muster the backing needed to push through fiscal measures central to its economic agenda.
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