In choppy trade, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex on Friday gained 53 points on value buying in some stocks amid a firm trend in global markets.
The Sensex, which lost 169 points yesterday, rose 52.83 points, or 0.30 per cent to 17,636.80. It touched the day’s low of 17,504.38 and a high of 17,731.88, with 16 of the 30 companies in the index making gains.
Similarly, the National Stock Exchange index Nifty rose 19.60 points, or 0.37 per cent to 5,359.35.
Strong Asian markets and higher openings in Europe lifted the Indian equities as well amid European leaders agreeing to speed up the bailout of Greece and the euro zone.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said the government has decided to study the auction process before going ahead with stake sale of other companies. Yesterday, it mopped up nearly Rs. 12,733 crore through 5 per cent stake auction in ONGC .
Reliance Industries rose 0.49 per cent and Larsen and Toubro by 1.66 per cent.
ICICI Bank, SBI, HDFC Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Bharti Airtel, HUL, Jindal Steel, NTPC, Tata Steel and Wipro made gains.
However, DLF fell 5.03 per cent, after having lost 5 per cent in the previous session amid reports of an analyst report raising concerns over its financial health.
The banking sector index gained the most by rising 1.40 per cent to 11,996.83, followed by healthcare -0.83 per cent at 6,404.95, capital goods - 0.58 per cent at 10,317.12 and metal - 0.16 per cent to 11,969.57.
