Indian markets ended higher for the fifth straight session on Friday, March 21 driven by foreign institutional investors returning to Indian stocks amid attractive valuations and signs of economic recovery.
Sensex ended 557.45 points higher at 76,905.51 while the broader Nifty rose 159.75 points to settle at 23,350.40. In the week, Nifty 50 and Sensex have risen by 4.3 percent.
Meanwhile, broader markets outperformed benchmarks with the midcap and smallcap indices ending 1.4 percent and 2 percent higher, respectively.
Sectors and stocks
Among sectors Nifty Media gained the most, up 2.2 percent followed by Nifty Oil & Gas, which rose 2 percent. Meanwhile, Nifty Bank, Nifty Financial Services, and Nifty Pharma added over 1 percent each,
In the Nifty 50 index, SBI Life was the top gainer, up 3.4 percent followed by NTPC, ONGC, Bajaj Finance and BPCL while Trent, M&M, Wipro, Hindalco and Infosys were the top losers.