Sensex climbs 127 points; Nifty settles above 11,600

In the Sensex pack, Vedanta rallied 3.20 per cent, followed by Tata Steel, M&M, Tata Motors, ONGC, Hindustan Unilever, Maruti, Hero MotoCorp, HDFC, Bajaj Finance, SBI, HDFC Bank, HCL Tech, Coal India, Sun Pharma, Infosys, Reliance and Bharti Airtel, rising up to 2.69 per cent.

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com

Rising for the second straight day, the BSE Sensex vaulted over 127 points while the NSE Nifty finished above the 11,600-mark on Friday on heavy buying in auto and metal stocks amid persistent foreign fund inflows and positive global leads.

The 30-share Sensex started off on a strong footing at 38,675 points and touched a high of 38,748.54 before winding up at 38,672.91, recording a rise of 127.19, or 0.33 per cent.

The 50-share NSE Nifty closed at 11,623.90, higher by 53.90 points, or 0.47 per cent, after hovering between 11,630.35 and 11,570.15.

In the Sensex pack, Vedanta rallied 3.20 per cent, followed by Tata Steel, M&M, Tata Motors, ONGC, Hindustan Unilever, Maruti, Hero MotoCorp, HDFC, Bajaj Finance, SBI, HDFC Bank, HCL Tech, Coal India, Sun Pharma, Infosys, Reliance and Bharti Airtel, rising up to 2.69 per cent.

On the other hand, IndusInd Bank emerged as the top loser, dropping 2.08 per cent.

Other major laggards were ITC, Bajaj Auto, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Asian Paints, PowerGrid, NTPC, Kotak Bank and L&T, shedding up to 1.10 per cent.

Experts attributed the continuing market rally to robust investor sentiment driven by sustained foreign fund inflows, stronger rupee, and a likely positive outcome of the US-China trade talks.

Trade talks with China are progressing "very well", US President Donald Trump said, as top negotiators from the two countries Thursday began another round of meetings to resolve their tariff war.

The Indian rupee Friday appreciated by 13 paise to 69.17 against the US dollar intra-day.

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net of Rs 3,594.51 crore on Thursday, provisional data available with BSE showed.