Mumbai: Benchmark equity indices Sensex and Nifty closed at 17-month high on Friday buoyed by continuous inflows from foreign and domestic institutional investors in the local equity shares. The 30-share Sensex started off on a strong footing and advanced further as buying pace gathered momentum to hit a high of 28,581.58, before settling 108.63 points, or 0.38%, higher at 28,532.11, its highest level since April 16 previous year when it had closed at 28,666.04. On similar lines, the broader Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) gained 35 points to close at 8,809.65. On weekly basis, the domestic currency recovered 24 paise, or 0.36 per cent after a three-straight weekly slide.
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Elsewhere, Asian shares were mixed as traders awaited the latest U.S. jobs report, the strength of which could help determine the timing of the next interest-rate increase.
The barometer index had gained 440.35 points, or 1.58 per cent, while the NSE Nifty edged up by 139.90 points, or 1.59 per cent. At the time of writing of this report, London’s FTSE100 was trading 0.75 per cent higher, while Germany’s DAX was up 0.14 per cent France’s CAC40 0.72 per cent.
Telecom stocks such as Bharti Airtel Ltd, Idea Cellular Ltd and Reliance Communications Ltd rebounded after they fell upto 9% on Thursday as Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) chairman Mukesh Ambani announced aggressively low prices for RIL’s Jio mobile phone services. Meanwhile, weak oil and upcoming nonfarm payrolls figures kept global markets on a watch mode.
Both indexes gained in four out of the five sessions in the week with the Nifty Auto index being the top performer after rising as much as 1.2 percent to hit a record high earlier in the session.
Broader markets too were in a bullish form, with the small-cap and mid-cap firming up 1.02 per cent and 0.80 per cent, respectively, after investors raised their bets.
Good buying was witnessed in Telecom, Auto, Realty, HealthCare, Utilities, Power, Finance and Banking sectors followed by midcap and smallcap shares.
Moving to the local market, 22 scrips out of the 30- share sensex pack ended higher while 8 others closed lower.
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Hong Kong’s Hang Seng went up by 0.47 per cent while Japan’s Nikkei was up 0.05 per cent in early trade. The major Sensex gainers on Thursday were: GAIL, up 2.06 per cent at Rs 392; Coal India, up 1.32 per cent at Rs 338.05; ICICI Bank, up 1.24 per cent at Rs 260.90; and Lupin, up 1.21 per cent at Rs 1,501.60.
