Mumbai: Equity markets extended their rally on Friday, with the Sensex and Nifty jumping over 1 per cent each, in tandem with a positive trend in global equities. Buying in Infosys and banking counters helped markets maintain their winning run. The 30-share BSE Sensex rallied 632.13 points or 1.17 per cent to settle at 54,884.66. During the day, the benchmark zoomed 684.1 points or 1.26 per cent to 54,936.63. The broader NSE Nifty jumped 182.30 points or 1.13 per cent to end at 16,352.45. From the Sensex pack, Tech Mahindra, IndusInd Bank, Wipro, Bajaj Finance, Infosys, Bajaj Finserv, Larsen & Toubro and HCL Technologies were the prominent gainers. In contrast, NTPC, Bharti Airtel, Power Grid, Tata Steel, Reliance Industries, Asian Paints and Nestle were the laggards. Elsewhere in Asia, markets in Seoul, Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong ended higher. Markets in Europe were also trading in the positive territory in the afternoon trade.
Stock markets in the US had ended significantly higher on Thursday. "Joining the global rally, the investors were in a buying mood following favourable retail earnings in the US. Receding FII selling also provided comfort to the domestic market in bringing down volatility," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services. International oil benchmark Brent crude gained 0.95 per cent to USD 118.5 per barrel. Foreign institutional investors continued their selling spree as they offloaded shares worth a net Rs 1,597.84 crore on Thursday, as per stock exchange data.—PTI