Sensex soars 336 points to close above 39,000-mark; Tata Steel rallies 7%

Mumbai: The BSE Sensex rallied 336 points to reclaim the 39,000 mark on Friday, propelled by gains in banking, oil and gas, metal and IT stocks amid easing global crude oil prices.

After hitting an intra-day high of 39,103.16, the Sensex settled 336.47 points, or 0.87 per cent, higher at 39,067.33.

The NSE Nifty too ended 112.85 points, or 0.97 per cent, up at 11,754.65 after scaling a high of 11,762.90 during the day.

Tata Steel and Axis Bank were among the top gainers in the Sensex pack, surging up to 6.67 per cent following their March quarter results.

ICICI Bank, TCS, SBI, RIL, Infosys, HDFC twins, Kotak Bank, HUL, NTPC, IndusInd Bank, Sun Pharma, HCL Tech, Bajaj Finance L&T and ITC were the other gainers, rising up to 3.05 per cent.

On the other hand, Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, Maruti, Bharti Airtel, Coal India, M&M and Vedanta fell up to 2.84 per cent.

Hero MotoCorp and Yes Bank ended up to 0.51 per cent lower ahead of their quarterly earnings.

According to traders, fall in crude oil prices and unabated foreign fund inflows have boosted investor sentiment. Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, slipped 1.28 per cent to USD 73.41 per barrel.

The rupee rebounded 25 paise to 70 against the US dollar intra-day. Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) purchased equity worth Rs 3,785.73 crore on Thursday, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold shares to the tune of Rs 4,069.98 crore, provisional data available with stock exchanges showed.

Elsewhere in Asia, benchmark equity indices in Shanghai, Tokyo and Seoul ended on a negative note. European equites were also weak in early trade.