Sensex, Nifty end higher for 2nd session on strong fund inflow, firm rupee

The BSE Sensex on Friday continued its rising streak for the second day to end at near a four-week high of 35,436.33, fuelled by gains in Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel and other bluechips amid continued foreign fund inflows and strengthening rupee.

A higher opening in European shares too influenced sentiments here.

Both benchmark indices — Sensex and Nifty — recorded their third straight weekly gains by rising 298.61 points and 97 points, respectively.

The Sensex opened higher and advanced further to scale the day’s high of 35,545.85, but settled at 35,457.16 points, a gain of 196.62 points, or 0.56 per cent, due to profit-taking activity.

This is the highest closing since October 17, when it had closed at 34,779.58. The gauge had risen 119 points in Thursday’s trade.

The 50-share NSE Nifty settled 65.50 points, or 0.62 per cent higher, at 10,682.20 after shuttling between 10,695.15 and 10,631.15.

Bharti Airtel led the gains on Sensex, rallying 9.81 per cent, followed by Reliance Industries (RIL) that rose 2.79 per cent.

RIL piped Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in becoming the most-valued company in terms of market capitalisation. The IT company ended the session 0.90 per cent higher at Rs 1,882.25 .

On BSE, RIL’s market capitalisation was Rs 7,14,668.54 crore, while TCS slipped to the second spot with a valuation of Rs 7,06,292.61 crore.

Other big movers included Hero MotoCorp rising 1.81 per cent, SBI 1.75 per cent, HDFC 1.67 per cent, HDFC Bank 1.28 per cent, Asian Paints 1.12 per cent, Sun Pharma 0.90 per cent, Bajaj Auto 0.89 per cent, ITC 0.66 per cent and Kotak Bank 0.42 per cent.

Shares of Jet Airways surged for a second straight day, climbing 8.07 per cent. on Thursday, shares of Jet airways had rallied up to 26 per cent on bourses.

Among laggards, Yes Bank extended its slide, declining 7.14 per cent to a two-week low after former SBI chairman O P Bhatt resigned Thursday from the panel set up by private-sector lender to find a successor to its MD and CEO Rana Kapoor.

Tata Steel, ONGC, Maruti Suzuki, ONGC, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank, Infosys, ICICI Bank, HUL, Vedanta, Tata Motors and and L&T too retreated up to 2.47 per cent.

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National Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSE)