Sensex soars to 3-month high on earnings boost, banks, IT stocks rally

Also, the broader NSE Nifty gained over 47 points to breach the psychological 10,700-level.

Market sentiment also got a boost after the Reserve Bank on Friday further liberalised external commercial borrowing (ECB) policy by including more sectors in the window, in a bid to facilitate easy access to overseas funds by the India Inc.

A higher opening in European markets and positive Asian cues, following last week's historic North-South Korea summit, too fuelled optimism.

The gains on domestic bourses were led by financial and technology stocks as investors widened their exposure ahead of key corporate results.

"Market continued its winning streak led by positive global cues and RBI's ease in rules for FPIs to invest in bonds. PSU banks outperformed in expectation of stability in yield while volume growth in bond market will provide relief to rupee," Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services Ltd, said.

Quarterly results so far have been better, contrarian bet IT industry is gaining investors' attention owing to improving macros and strengthening dollar, he added.

The January-March quarterly results posted by companies so far are largely in line with market expectations.

Meanwhile, the Mortgage lender HDFC today reported 28.63 per cent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 3,961.17 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2018.

Driven by realty, capital goods, IT and banking stocks, the Sensex reclaimed the 35,000-mark at the outset to hit a high of 35,213.30 before ending at 35,160.36, up 190.66 points, or 0.55 per cent. This is its highest closing for the Sensex since February 1 when it had ended at 35,906.66.

The gauge had climbed 468.43 points in the previous two days.

For the 50-share NSE Nifty, the close came in at 10,739.35, higher by 47.05 points, or 0.44 per cent, after shuttling between 10,759 and 10,704.60.

Main indices - Sensex and Nifty - remained well above their key levels of 35,000 and 10,700 levels points, respectively throughout the session as investors were optimistic about upcoming results from more companies.

Domestic financial institutions continued to hold ground and retail investors built up more bets amid a firming Asian trend.

Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) picked up shares worth a net Rs 633.71 crore on Friday. Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) exited, pulling out shares amounting to Rs 759.21 crore on a net basis, showed provisional data.

Metal, realty, capital goods, healthcare, power, PSU and auto sector stocks were other major winners of the day.

In the Asian region, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.74 per cent. Taiwan up 0.99 per cent, while Singapore rose 1.03 per cent. Financial markets in Japan and China were shut today for public holidays.

Key indices in Europe were in a better shape in their early session. Frankfurt's DAX was up 0.22 per cent and Paris CAC 40 gained 0.23 per cent. London's FTSE edged up 0.50 per cent.

During the session, stocks of auto makers attracted investors' attention ahead of sale numbers data for April.

Yes Bank continued its upward march and topped the Sensex list by surging 3.90 per cent to Rs 362.05 largely on the back of better-than-expected Q4 earnings posted last week.

Hindustan Unilever surged 2.34 per cent, to Rs 1,509.05, followed by India's largest IT firm TCS which went up 2.22 per cent to Rs 3,531.40.

HDFC Ltd shot up by 1.44 per cent to Rs 1,884.65 after the company today posted 29 per cent growth in its net profit at Rs 3,961.17 crore for the fourth quarter.

Other big movers were Kotak Bank, L&T, SBI, HDFC Bank, Wipro, Asian Paint, M&M, Adani Ports, Tata Motors, Infosys, NTPC, Dr Reddy's, ITC Ltd, Tata Steel, Sun Pharma, IndusInd Bank, Bharti Airtel, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Auto and Hero MotoCorp.

Shares of Reliance Industries, however, fell 3.18 per cent after it announced plans to shut oil and gas production at its main fields in KG-D6 block in the coming months and begin complying with the government's guidelines for decommissioning facilities in the Bay of Bengal block where output has hit its lowest ever.

The company on Friday reported a 17.3 per cent jump in its fourth quarter net profit on the back of robust petrochemicals margins and telecom arm Jio's maiden profits.

Axis Bank fell 3.87 per cent on weak earnings declared last week, making it the biggest loser on Sensex.

As for sectoral indices, the BSE realty took the lead by rising 1.50 per cent, followed by capital goods at 1.48 per cent, IT (1.44 pc), FMCG (1.35 pc), Teck (1.10 pc), Infrastructure (0.91 pc), Power (0.89 pc), Healthcare (0.84 pc), Bankex (0.43 pc), Auto (0.39 pc), PSU (0.37 pc) and Metal (0.32 pc).

Broader markets such as small-cap and mid-cap indices too rallied in step with key indices, surging by 0.89 per cent and 0.56 per cent, respectively.