Sensex, Nifty marginally up

Mumbai: Benchmark Sensex and Nifty rose by nearly 1 per cent on Friday, extending gains for a second straight day on the back of buying in auto, banking, and energy stocks in line with firm global trends. The 30-share BSE Sensex advanced further by 462.26 points or 0.88 per cent to settle at 52,727.98 as 23 of its constituents ended in the green.

During the day, it rallied 644.15 points or 1.23 per cent to 52,909.87. The Nifty rose by 142.60 points or 0.92 per cent to settle at 15,699.25 with 39 of its scrips posting gains. Sensex and Nifty had recovered nearly 1 per cent Thursday. "Mirroring a firm trend in the global market and in response to declining commodity prices, the domestic market maintained its positive trend.

The up-move was supported by broad-based buying except in IT," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services. From the Sensex pack, M&M was the biggest gainer spurting 4.28 per cent. IndusInd Bank rose by 2.59 per cent, Bajaj Finance by 2.58 per cent, Hindustan Unilever by 2.3 per cent, ICICI Bank by 2 per cent, and Bharti Airtel by 1.72 per cent.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries rebounded 1.47 per cent and Tata Steel by 1.42 per cent. Nestle, HDFC Bank, HDFC, Ultratech Cement, Maruti, Kotak Bank, Axis Bank and SBI also advanced. On the other hand, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, HCL Technologies, TCS, Wipro and Sun Pharma were the laggards. "Markets edged higher for the second consecutive session, driven by firm global cues. Healthy rebound financials, metals and PSU banks aided sentiments," Ajit Mishra, VP - Research, Religare Broking Ltd, said.

The broader markets outperformed and ended higher in the range of 1.4 per cent to 1.6 per cent. Barring IT, all the other sectoral indices ended in the green.

The BSE smallcap gauge jumped 1.60 per cent and the midcap index gained 1.53 per cent. Among the BSE sectoral indices, telecom jumped 2.53 per cent, auto (1.98 per cent) power (1.73 per cent), consumer discretionary goods & services (1.68 per cent), consumer durables (1.47 per cent) and finance (1.40 per cent).

Information Technology and teck were the only laggards. As many as 2,401 stocks advanced, while 906 declined and 141 remained unchanged. On weekly basis, Sensex jumped 2.66 per cent or 1,367 points after two straight weeks of losses. The broader Nifty spurted by 2.64 per cent or 405.75 points, ending two weeks of losses.