Market close: Sensex charts new high backed by rollovers

On the first day of the May F&O Series, the benchmark index gained more than 300 points and Nifty gained more than 100 points. ICICI Bank, Reliance, TCS and Axis Bank fueled the upsurge on Friday.

BSE Sensex opened at 38,865.83 and hit an intraday high of 39,103.16 in post lunch hours to close at 39,067.33, up by 336.47 points or 0.87 per cent. On the other hand, Nifty trade below its psychological level of 11,800 to close at 11,754.65, up by 112.85 points or 0.97 per cent. Backed by the rally in banking stocks, the Nifty Bank index traded ahead of benchmark indices with gains of 30,013.50, up by a stupendous 452.15 points or 1.53 per cent.

However, in the broader market terms, the Nifty Mid-cap 100 and Small 100 indices closed down by 0.26 per cent and 0.11 per cent, respectively.

Among the top gainers of Nifty were Tata Steel up by 7.19 per cent, BPCL up by 3.78, ICICI Bank and GAIL up close to 3 per cent, while JSW Steel up by 2.58 per cent. Among the top losers were Tata Motors down by 2.88 per cent, Grasim, Bajaj-Auto, Dr. Reddy and M&M down by more than 1 per cent.

Sectorally, besides Bank Nifty, Nifty Metal, IT and FMCG indices were trading in green. Nifty Auto, Media and Realty indices closed in the red. Nifty Auto index was down by 1.10 per cent, while Media and Realty indices were down 0.18 and 0.49 per cent respectively.

Index heavyweights ICICI Bank, Reliance, TCS contributed to the Sensex gained by 75.99 points, 53.66 points, 48.14 points, while Axis Bank, HDFC, Infy contributed around 30 points.

A fall in international crude oil prices, strong rollover into May Series in the F&O market and good inflow of foreign fund led to the market rally on Friday.