Market Benchmark Index Sensex rallied 231.80 points or +0.73% at 31,837.02 during the opening session on Thursday. Meanwhile, the broader Nifty 50 rallied 64.30 points or 0.69% at 9,379.25.
The top gainers were IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank,L&T, ICIC Bank, HDFC Bank, Tata Steel, Asian Paint, HDFC, ONGC, Bajaj Finance, Kotak Bank, Hero motors, SBIN, Sunpharma, Bharti Airtel among others while M&M, Power Grid, TCS, Tech Mahindra, ITC, HCL Tech, and Infy were in the red on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Earlier on Friday, Sensex rallied 996 points while the Nifty surged past the 9,300-mark during the closing session on Wednesday as investors piled into banking, finance and IT counters ahead of the expiry of monthly derivatives contracts.
Firm global cues and foreign capital inflows added to the buying momentum, traders said.
After hitting a high of 31,660.60 during the day, the 30-share BSE Sensex settled 995.92 points or 3.25 per cent higher at 31,605.22.
Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty surged 285.90 points or 3.17 per cent to 9,314.95.
Despite concerns over COVID-19, market participants preferred to accumulate stocks ahead of the expiry of May futures and options contracts on Thursday, propelling benchmark indices, experts said.
"The benchmark indices staged an intra-day rally in sync with global cues, as some pockets of value buying emerged. Inspite of rising number of infections, markets expect slow return to normalcy, when lockdown 4.0 ends this week. Institutional buying in banking stocks helped the bank index gain by over 7 per cent. The volatility is expected to continue, ahead of tomorrow's F&O expiry," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.
(With inputs from Agencies)
