Sensex, Nifty gain; BASF zooms by 20 per cent, Affle India locks in upper circuit

The share market on Friday continued its forward march with broader markets yet again impressing investors. Sensex jumped by 214.33 points to close at 38434.72 levels, up by 0.56 per cent. Nifty closed at 11371.60 levels, up by 59.40 points or 0.53 per cent.

INDIA VIX stood at 19.94, down by 3.30 per cent. HDFC twins, Asian Paints, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank contributed the most to the Sensex gains.

Eurozone PMI data failed to enthuse investors even as DAX and CAC 40 showed modest gains inching up by 0.42 per cent and 0.35 per cent respectively. FTSE was trading flat with no gains.

On the other hand, Asian markets traded in green with Nikkei up by 0.17 per cent, Hang Seng up by 1.30 per cent and Shanghai index gained by 0.50 per cent.

The top Sensex gainers in Friday’s session were NTPC which jumped up by 4.75 per cent, Asian Paints gained 4.43 per cent, Power Grid inched up by 4.39 per cent, HDFC Bank strengthened up by 2.56 per cent, Nestle India gained 2.02 per cent and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries rose by 2 per cent.

Sensex losers included ONGC declining by 1.34 per cent, Bharti Airtel fell by 1.05 per cent, Tata Steel slid by 0.81 per cent, RIL decreased by 0.70 per cent and Infosys fell by 0.65 per cent.

The BSE Small-Cap index continued its outperformance by gaining 1.41 per cent while BSE Mid-Cap index jumped by 0.57 per cent. BASF, Butterfly Gandhimathi Appliances Ltd and Bhansali Engineering Polymers Ltd were the top Small-Cap gainers. Varroc Engineering, IDBI and GMR Infrastructure were amongst the top Mid-Cap gainers.

Amongst the sectoral indices on BSE, Power index gained the most followed by Realty Index. BSE Power Index jumped by 2.83 per cent while BSE Realty Index inched up by 1.43 per cent. BSE Auto Index was up by 0.33 per cent even as BSE Bankex rallied by 1.27 per cent. BSE Healthcare index inched up by 0.73 per cent while BSE Metal index slipped by 0.44 per cent.