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Nifty, Sensex rise more than 3% each during the week

By Reuters

  • 21 May 2021
Nifty, Sensex rise more than 3% each during the week
Credit: Reuters

Indian shares closed higher on Friday, as financial stocks jumped after State Bank of India's (SBI) quarterly earnings, with sentiment aided by a fall in daily COVID-19 infections.

The blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 index added 1.81% to close at 15,175.30, while the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex gained 1.97% to end at 50,540.80. For the week, both the indexes rose more than 3%.

Daily cases of the novel coronavirus in India stayed below the 300,000-mark for the fifth straight day, well below the record of more than 414,000 earlier this month.

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"Banks led the charge today, buoyed by SBI earnings... broader market too witnessed good activity as the curve of daily (coronavirus) cases displayed a declining trend," said S. Ranganathan, head of research at LKP Securities.

The Nifty Bank Index jumped 3.82% after a more than 1% drop on Thursday, helped by a 4.3% rise in SBI after the country's largest lender by assets reported a record quarterly profit.

Private-sector lenders HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank were the top boosts to the Nifty 50, closing 4.5% and 3.9% higher, respectively.

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The Nifty energy index ended 0.89% higher, boosted by a 3.7% rise in Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd after the state-run refiner reported higher quarterly net profit on Thursday.

The Indian rupee also gained on Friday, tracking the uptick in domestic markets, while the benchmark 10-year bond yield fell for a fifth straight week.

Globally, stocks were steady on Friday after a volatile week, taking their lead from a stronger Wall Street as U.S. data tempered inflation fears, while the dollar approached three-month lows on reduced bets of early Federal Reserve rate hikes.

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