The Sensex and Nifty ended higher for a seventh straight session on Friday as IT firms gained, while bonds slid on market talk of a potential sovereign ratings upgrade by Standard & Poor's.

Speculation about an S&P rating upgrade on India surfaced late on Thursday. This comes after a surprise upgrade by Moody's last week.

The 30-share BSE index Sensex ended higher by 91.16 points or 0.27 per cent at 33,679.24 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty was up 40.95 points or 0.4 per cent at 10,389.70.

Barring metal, all other BSE sectoral indices ended in the positive zone. Among them, consumer durables index gained the most by 2.79 per cent, followed by IT 0.85 per cent, TECk 0.79 per cent and oil & gas 0.69 per cent, while metal index was down 0.6 per cent.

Top five Sensex gainers were Infosys (+1.87%), Bajaj Auto (+1.07%),M&M (+1.05%), Kotak Bank (+0.99%) and PowerGrid (+0.91%), while the major losers were State Bank of India (-0.79%), Adani Ports (-0.74%), Hero MotoCorp (-0.66%), ICICI Bank (-0.64%) and Dr Reddy's (-0.56%).

S&P rating

“There is a knee-jerk reaction in the market because of the S&P expectation,” said Guarang Shah, head investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

“There could be a bump of 200-300 points, but the markets will consolidate again. However, these upgrades could see new foreign investments coming in.”

Foreign investors have net bought $2.33 billion worth of Indian shares in November so far.

NSE index rallies

The last time the NSE index rallied for seven straight sessions was between June 12 and June 23, 2015.

The benchmark 10-year bond fell, with yield rising as high as 7.04 per cent.

The Nifty IT index, up for a second session with Infosys Ltd leading the gains, was one of the top gainers among sectoral indexes.

“IT stocks were the underperformers when the indexes rallied earlier this month, but better-than-expected quarterly numbers and the ability to scale up operations by launching high margin products will bring traction in this sector,” Shah added.

Early trade

Extending its rally, the 30-share index advanced 101.78 points or 0.30 per cent to 33,689.86. The gauge had gained 827.64 points in the previous six sessions. The 50-share Nifty gained 30.70 points or 0.29 per cent to 10,379.45.

Asian shares

Asian shares hovered below their 10-year peak on Friday while investors viewed Chinese shares with caution after their big fall the previous day.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan ticked down 0.1 per cent in early trade, led by 0.3 per cent fall in Australian shares.

The MSCI index hovered still just 0.5 per cent below its 10-year peak hit earlier this week. Japan's Nikkei fell 0.6 per cent after a market holiday on Thursday while US stock futures were little changed after shortened trading on Thursday.

(With inputs from agencies)

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