The benchmark BSE Sensex surged over 320 points on across-the-board buying in blue-chips by funds and retail investors on rate cut hopes and value-buying.

Further, beginning of June series in the derivatives segment, supported the upside in stock prices.

Traders said markets have broadly priced in a 25 basis points cut by the Reserve Bank of India at its policy review on Tuesday on the back of easing inflation and middling economic growth.

The country is due to release January-March economic growth data later in the day. Although growth is expected to be faster than China, there are nagging doubts over the government's new method of calculating the gross domestic product.

The 30-share BSE index Sensex surged 321.73 points or 1.17 per cent at 27,828.44 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty jumped 114.65 points or 1.38 per cent at 8,433.65.

Barring realty, all other BSE sectoral indices ended in the green. Among them, auto index gained the most by 2.08 per cent, followed by infrastructure 1.84 per cent, healthcare 1.63 per cent and TECk 1.58 per cent, while realty index was down 0.13 per cent.

Top five Sensex gainers were Bharti Airtel 5.98%, M&M 4.89%, GAIL 2.3%, Maruti 2.26% and Coal India 2.14%, while the major losers were Hindalco 2.16%, Tata Motors 0.4%, BHEL 0.14% and VEDL 0.1%.

Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors sold shares worth Rs 792.54 crore, while domestic institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 683.29 crore yesterday, as per provisional data.

Early trade

The benchmark BSE Sensex rose over 50 points in early trade today on fresh buying by participants as the June series in the derivatives segment began amid firm Asian cues.

The 30-share index, which had lost 57.95 points in the previous volatile session, rose 50.13 points or 0.18 per cent to 27,556.84.

Similalry, the NSE Nifty gained 26.10 points or 0.31 per cent to 8,345.10.

Brokers said fresh positions built-up by participants, following the beginning of the June F&O series and value-buying in select counters helped the trading sentiment improve.

Global markets

European shares fell on Friday, setting them on course for a weekly loss, as investors were unnerved by conflicting signals from Greece's debt talks and data showing private loan growth in the euro zone stalled last month.

Athens' benchmark share index fell 1.8 per cent, while the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 shed 0.8 per cent to 1,602.48 points by 0808 GMT.

The FTSEurofirst was down 0.9 per cent for the week so far, which has been marked by uncertainty surrounding Greece's negotiations with its international lenders ahead of a payment deadline for Athens looming next week. The index is still up around 1.7 per cent for the month.

Asian shares rose on Friday as Chinese shares edged back from the previous day’s dizzying plunge, though regional investors remained fearful that the world’s best performing equity market was at the beginning of a major correction.

Buoyed by China, Australia and South Korea, the MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan climbed 0.5 per cent, but looked set to slip 1.5 per cent on the week. It has gained nearly 7 per cent so far this year.

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