Sensex rises 260 pts on continuous foreign fund inflows, hopes of India-US trade deal

Mumbai: BSE benchmark index Sensex ended 260 points higher on Friday buoyed by optimism surrounding a potential India-US trade deal, record high GST collection in April, and continuous foreign fund inflows.

The 30-share BSE benchmark gauge later trimmed most of the gains and settled 259.75 points or 0.32 per cent higher at 80,501.99.

In a volatile trade, the NSE Nifty eked out a marginal gain of 12.50 points or 0.05 per cent to settle at 24,346.70.

From the Sensex firms, Adani Ports jumped over 4 per cent after the firm reported a 50 per cent jump in its March quarter net profit and issued a higher year-on-year revenue growth forecast for the current fiscal, citing strong growth in port volumes and a robust rise in the logistics business.

Bajaj Finance, IndusInd Bank, State Bank of India, Maruti, Tata Motors, ITC, Tata Steel and Reliance Industries were also among the gainers. Nestle, NTPC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Power Grid and Titan were among the laggards.

Among sectoral indices, services jumped 1.67 per cent, oil & gas (0.69 per cent), energy (0.57 per cent), BSE Focused IT (0.49 per cent) and IT (0.45 per cent). The rupee on Friday pared all gains to settle 3 paise lower at 84.57 against the

greenback.