Sensex rallies most in 19 months, Nifty ends above 10,450

Mumbai: Driven by fall in crude prices and the recovery in rupee, the BSE Sensex Friday posted its biggest single-day gain in 19 months, soaring over 700 points as global markets rebounded after two straight sessions of losses.

The rupee strengthened 53 paise to 73.59 (intra-day) against the US dollar in the forex market.

Both indices ended the week higher for the first time in six weeks. During the period the Sensex climbed 366.59 points and Nifty rose 156.05 points.

After opening on strong footing, the Sensex advanced to hit a high of 34,808.42 on buying momentum after retail investors returned to the market.

It later gave up some of the gains, but still ended notably higher by 732.43 points, or 2.15 percent, at 34,733.58. The index posted its biggest single-day gain since March 2017.

The broader Nifty ended the week at 10,472.50, up 237.85 points, or 2.32 percent. It touched a high of 10,492.45 points in day trade.

Investors lapped up recently-hammered auto, realty, metal, oil and gas, FMCG, banking, power, infrastructure, IT, auto, and capital goods stocks amid unabated funds inflow by domestic institutional investors (DIIs) ahead of the release of key IIP numbers for August and inflation data for September scheduled later in the day.

Bear operators, who had been creating short-positions in the past several sessions, were seen covering up positions, brokers said.

"The whiplash in equities this week continued as market rallied strongly, driven by a good start to earnings season by IT bellwether TCS, a drop in crude oil prices, a drop in gilt bond yields and a strengthening currency," said Sunil Sharma, Chief Investment Officer, Sanctum Wealth Management.

Market has been deeply oversold, and investors were additionally buoyed by news that inflows into equity... Foreign investor (FI) selling was offset by domestic buyers, he added.

Oil prices, after easing near 3 percent in the previous two days, gained marginally Friday. Brent was up 1.16 percent to USD 81.19 a barrel.

Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) made purchases worth a net of Rs 1,888 crore Thursday, while foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares to tune of Rs 2,869 crore provisional data showed.