The Indian equity benchmarks extended gains in noon deals led by gains in Infosys, HDFC Bank, HDFC, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Bajaj Finance. The Sensex rose as much as 625 points and Nifty 50 index reclaimed its important psychological level of 16,300 amid positive global cues.
Asian shares gained Friday as investors cheered a strong set of earnings from retailers that has sent U.S. shares higher.
Overnight, Wall Street ended broadly higher after seven straight weeks of declines, the longest such stretch since 2001.
Back home, as of 1:46 pm, the Sensex was up 619 points at 54,871 and Nifty 50 index climbed 177 points to 16,347.
Buying was visible across the board as thirteen of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty IT index's 2.5 per cent gain. Nifty Private Bank, Bank, Financial Services, Auto, PSU Bank and Healthcare indices also rose between 1-1.75 per cent.
On the other hand, Oil & Gas and Metal stocks were facing selling pressure.
Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 1.05 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 1.32 per cent.
HDFC Life was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 4.4 per cent to Rs 603. Tech Mahindra, Apollo Hospitals, Bajaj Finance, Hero MotoCorp, IndusInd Bank, Wipro, Infosys, HCL Technologies, Bajaj Finserv, Larsen & Toubro and Hindustan Unilever also rose between 2-4 per cent.
On the flipside, ONGC, NTPC, JSW Steel, Tata Steel, Power Grid, Bharat Petroleum, Asia Paints, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Industries were among the losers.
The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 2,129 shares were advancing while 1,085 were declining on the BSE.
