Indian shares recovered from mild falls to end higher on Friday, posting their third consecutive weekly gain, as hopes for rising sales during the ongoing festive season lifted sectors such as auto makers, trumping earlier concerns about earnings.
Domestic sentiment was also buoyed by positive global cues. European shares extended the previous session's rally on Friday, tracking strong gains on Wall Street and in Asia, as some US. data releases eased concerns about the pace of recovery in the world's biggest economy.
The 30-share BSE index Sensex surged 204.46 points or 0.76 per cent to 27,214.60 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty jumped 58.65 points or 0.72 per cent to 8,238.15.
Among BSE sectoral indices, capital goods index gained the most by 1.83 per cent, followed by banking 1.3 per cent, oil & gas 1.16 per cent and auto 0.87 per cent. On the other hand, realty index was down 1.38 per cent, followed by metal 0.43 per cent and consumer durables 0.43 per cent.
Maruti Suzuki Ltd rose 1.66 per cent, while Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd gained 1.1 per cent.
But shares of companies which posted disappointing results this week continued to fall. Infosys Ltd fell 0.22 per cent, posting a fifth consecutive losing session after it lowered its dollar revenue guidance on Monday. Shares in the software firm fell 6.2 per cent for the week, its worst weekly performance since April.
Top five Sensex gainers were L&T (+2.83%), SBIN (+2.39%), Maruti (+1.6%), ONGC (+1.58%) and Tata Motors (+1.44%), while the major losers were Lupin (-2.11%), Tata Steel (-1.04%), Coal India (-0.98%), HUL (-0.77%) and Bharti Airtel (-0.46%).
A report by SMC Global said: "Asian stocks followed US shares higher, with the regional benchmark index heading for a third straight weekly advance, as technology and financial companies led gains. US consumer price index slipped by 0.2 per cent in September after edging down by 0.1 per cent in August. Economists had expected prices to dip by 0.2 percent. The decrease by the headline index was partly due to another steep drop in energy prices, which plunged by 4.7 per cent in September after tumbling by 2.0 per cent in August.''