Indian shares rose for a sixth consecutive session on Friday, extending a recent rebound to mark their biggest weekly gain in almost five months, as heavy monsoon rains eased fears the country would experience a drought.

The 30-share BSE index Sensex jumped 200.34 points or 0.74 per cent to 27,316.17 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty gained 50.35 points or 0.62 per cent to 8,224.95.

Among BSE sectoral indices, oil & gas index was the star-performer and was up 1.11 per cent, followed by banking 0.86 per cent, FMCG 0.75 per cent and PSU 0.72 per cent. On the other hand, realty index was down 0.75 per cent, followed by power 0.22 per cent and consumer durables 0.13 per cent.

Top five Sensex gainers were M&M (+4.53%), Maruti (+2.75%), HDFC (+2.29%), ONGC (+2.02%) and Reliance (+1.78%), while the major losers were Tata Motors (-2.82%), Tata Power (-1.3%), Sun Pharma (-0.94%), GAIL (-0.91%) and BHEL (-0.66%)..

Brokers said persistent buying by investors driven by above-normal monsoon till now and the Federal Reserve’s dovish stance on interest rate lifted the domestic sentiment.

"Good rains are good news for most. But it will be great if the government can make more headway on reforms in the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament in August," said G. Chokkalingam, founder of Equinomics, a Mumbai-based research and fund advisory firm.

A strong trend in other Asian markets following a record closing at US markets yesterday despite the Greek stalemate also boosted the trading sentiment.

Global markets

European shares rose in early trading on Friday, buoyed by gains overnight in Wall Street and at steelmaker Thyssenkrupp, although persistent concerns over Greece kept a lid on the overall progress.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index rose 0.4 per cent to 1,530.97 points. Germany’s DAX progressed by 0.7 per cent, while France’s CAC rose 0.5 per cent.

Asian shares rose for a third consecutive day on Friday, and the dollar remained on the back foot against the region’s currencies as investors bet US interest rates will not as rise quickly as expected.

A broad index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.6 per cent, while Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.9 per cent from a one-month low set on Thursday.

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