The Sensex on Friday soared by 380 points, logging its sixth successive session of gains, to nearly four-week highs boosted by gains in banking stocks on hopes of much-awaited sectoral reforms and encouraging manufacturing output data for December.
The 50-issue Nifty of NSE crossed the 8,400 level before ending at 8,395.45, a gain of 111.45 points or 1.35 per cent. Shares of PSU and private sector banks saw heavy buying. Senior bankers, insurers, financial sector regulators and finance ministry officials are attending the two-day meet at Pune from Friday to deliberate on host of issues including M&As and bad assets to revitalise the banking sector. The Sensex resumed higher at 27,521.28 and surged to 27,937.47 before ending at 27,887.90, a sharp gain of 380.36 points or 1.38 per cent. This is its strongest closing in nearly four weeks. It has now gained over 679.29 points in six straight days. On a weekly basis, it climbed 646 points.
Banking stocks like HDFC, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and SBI rose. Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra and United Bank of India gained among PSU banks outside the index. Besides banking, capital goods, IT, power, teck and realty counters too attracted good buying support. This was after an HSBC survey said that India's manufacturing sector grew at its fastest pace in two years in December on strong orders flows from domestic buyers as well from abroad. Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a Rs18.20 crore on Thursday, as per provisional data available with stock exchanges.
Asian stocks ended higher following the New Year's Day holiday. Key benchmark indices in Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea firmed up by 0.16 per cent to 1.07 per cent. Stock markets in China, Japan and Taiwan remained closed on Friday for holiday. However, European stocks were trading lower in their afternoon trades as key indices in France, Germany and UK eased by 0.45 per cent to 0.75 per cent. There were indications of higher opening in the US Index futures.