Key equity indices gained over half a per cent on Friday as the second Covid-19 wave continued to recede and investors expected the pace of vaccination to pick up.
While industry leaders hoped for another economic stimulus by the government, analysts said the overall structure of market remains positive. Investors remained upbeat about unlocking of economy next month which will help revive commercial activities.
At the closing bell, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 308 points or 0.6 per cent at 51,423 while the Nifty 50 gained by 98 points or 0.64 per cent to 15,436 and scaled fresh lifetime high.
Except for Nifty pharma which dipped by 1.2 per cent and IT by 0.1 per cent, all other sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the green with thin margins.
Among stocks, index heavyweight Reliance Industries advanced by 6 per cent to Rs 2,094.45 per share.
HDFC Bank was up by 1.7 per cent and home loan lender HDFC added 1.3 per cent. Adani Ports gained by 3.4 per cent, Grasim by 3.3 per cent, Mahindra & Mahindra by 2.2 per cent and JSW Steel by 1.2 per cent.
However, pharma stocks lost on profit booking with Sun Pharma down by 3.8 per cent and Dr Reddy's by 1.3 per cent.
Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance, Nestle India, UltraTech Cement and Tata Consultancy Serivce too were in the red.
Meanwhile, Asian stocks were up as investors bet the United States will lead the world out of Covid-19 pandemic with focus turning to a multi-trillion dollar spending boost by the Biden administration.
Tokyo led the advance with Nikkei jumping 2.1 per cent as vaccine progress spurred recovery bets.
South Korea stocks rose by 0.73 per cent on auto strength and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up by 0.04 per cent.
( With inputs from ANI )
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor