Sensex Closes 301 Points Higher, Nifty Jumps Nearly 1% Ahead of Gujarat Assembly Elections

Sensex, Nifty rose significantly on Friday with the BSE benchmark index Sensex gaining more than 300 points to close past the 33,250-mark. Sensex rose 301 points, or 0.91%, higher to close at 33,250 points, while Nifty jumped 99 points, 0.97%, to close at 10,266 points. Auto and metal shares jumped more than 1 per cent in early morning deals, while the consumer durables rose 0.83 per cent. Brokers said unabated buying by retail and domestic institutional investors and a firm trend in the other Asian markets, which rallied for a second straight session, influenced sentiment.

Japan's Nikkei led the way as the yen eased on the dollar, rising 1.1 per cent on top of Thursday's 1.45 per cent bounce to be almost back where it started the week. Australian stocks put on 0.3 percent while MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.6 per cent.

Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow rose 0.29 per cent, the S&P 500 gained 0.29 per cent and the Nasdaq 0.54 per cent.

Top gainers in the Nifty 50 included Bharti Airtel, Maruti Suzuki India, Vedanta, Tata Motors, IndusInd Bank, Hindalco Industries and Adani Ports - up between 1.6 per cent and 3 per cent.

On the other hand, Reliance Industries, Asian Paints and NTPC witnessed some selling - trading down between 0.5 per cent and 0.6 per cent.