Sensex, Nifty End At Six Month Highs Led By Gain In Banking Shares

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes rose for a sixth session in a row on Friday powered by a rally in banking shares. With today's gain, the Sensex and Nifty ended at their highest level since February 27. Banking shares powered gains in Friday's session as the gauge of banking shares on the National Stock Exchange - Nifty Bank index - rallied nearly 1,000 points.

The Sensex ended 354 points or 0.9 per cent higher at 39,467 and Nifty climbed 0.76 per cent or 88 points to close at 11,648. In the last six sessions, the Sensex has rallied 2.68 per cent and Nifty has surged 2.43 per cent.

Eight of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended higher led by the Nifty PSU Bank index's nearly 5 per cent gain. Private banking, financial services, media and telecom shares also witnessed buying interest.

On the other hand, auto, metal and FMCG shares witnessed a mild profit booking.

Mid- and small-cap shares ended mixed as the Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.58 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index slipped 0.20 per cent.

Shares of defence equipment manufacturers rallied on Friday a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that India has potential to become a reliable defence supplier to friendly countries and boost global peace and also for help world economy become more stable. Following these comments, shares of Bharat Electronics soared 4.5 per cent to Rs 112, Bharat Dynamics zoomed 5.4 per cent to Rs 432, BEML gained 4.35 per cent to Rs 725 and Bharat Forge added 2.2 per cent to Rs 512.

IndusInd Bank was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 12 per cent to Rs 679. Axis Bank, UPL, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Sun Pharma, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Adani Ports, Grasim Industries and Bharti Airtel also rose between 2-8 per cent each.

On the flipside, JSW Steel, Hero MotoCorp, Dr Reddy's Labs, Power Grid, Infosys, Hindustan Unilever and HDFC Life were among the losers.