Bulls in charge for sixth straight day; Sensex reclaims 56K mark, bank, finance stocks shine

Mumbai: Equity benchmark Sensex stretched its winning run to the sixth straight session on Friday to reclaim the 56,000-level due to robust gains in banking and financial stocks amid a largely positive trend in overseas markets.

The 30-share BSE benchmark rose 390.28 points or 0.70 per cent to settle at 56,072.23. During the day, it advanced 504.1 points or 0.90 per cent to 56,186.05.

The broader NSE Nifty climbed 114.20 points or 0.69 per cent to 16,719.45.

Among the Sensex constituents, UltraTech Cement, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Titan Company, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Hindustan Unilever were the lead gainers.

Infosys, NTPC, Power Grid, Wipro and IndusInd Bank were the major laggards.

The market breadth was in favour of the bulls, with 18 of the 30 Sensex stocks closing in the green.

In the broader market, the BSE smallcap gauge went higher by 0.21 per cent, while the midcap index dipped by 0.17 per cent.

A total of 1,781 stocks advanced, while 1,541 declined and 147 remained unchanged.

Among the BSE sectoral indices, bank jumped 1.49 per cent, followed by finance (1.36 per cent), basic materials (1.26 per cent) and realty (0.37 per cent).

Power, teck, telecom and IT were among the laggards.

The rupee fell by 5 paise to close at 79.90 against the US dollar on Friday as stronger American currency and elevated crude oil prices weighed on investor sentiment.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.51 per cent to $103.33 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers on Thursday, offloading shares worth Rs 675.45 crore, as per exchange data.