Sensex, Nifty rise over 1%; banking, consumer durable stocks surge

Mumbai: The key Indian equity indices — S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty50 — rose over one per cent on Friday supported by a healthy macro economic data and firm buying activity in the banking, consumer durables and metal indices.

The Nikkei India Services Business Activity Index released on Friday rose from 52.6 in June to 54.2 in July, the strongest rate of output growth since October 2016.

At 3.30 p.m, the wider Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) provisionally closed at 11,360.80 points, higher by 116.10 points or 1.03 per cent from the previous close of 11,244.70 points.

The benchmark BSE Sensex, which had opened at 37,327.16 points, closed at 37,556.16 points, higher 391.00 points or 1.05 per cent from the previous close of 37,165.16 points.

On an intra-day basis, it touched a high of 37,582.27 points and a low of 37,319.61 points. The BSE market breadth was bullish with 1,771 advances and 936 declines.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank, Vedanta, Yes Bank, ICICI Bank and Kotak Bank, while Tata Motors, Tata Motors (DVR), Hero MotoCorp, Asian Paints and HDFC Bank lost the most.

IANS