Friday Closing bell: Sensex up 250 pts, Nifty ends at record closing high; telecom, banks lead
Equity benchmarks closed sharply higher for the second consecutive session as investors cheered macro data and hopes raised for an early resolution to telecom NPAs post telecom deals.
The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 250.47 points at 32,432.69 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 71.10 points to 10,167.50.
The market breadth was weak as about 1,431 shares declined against 1,293 advancing shares on the BSE.
Bharti Airtel was up 6 percent, Tata Teleservices up 9 percent and Tata Communications up 2 percent after Airtel decided to buy consumer telecom business of Tata Sons. Bharti Infratel was up 3 percent.
Markets also got a boost after data showed inflation held steady, instead of accelerating as expected, raising tentative hopes the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would be less hawkish about interest rates.