Banks lift indices to 10-wk high; Sensex ends 976 pts up, Nifty at 15,175

Stock market updates: Benchmark indices built on gains clocked through the day and ended nearly 2 per cent higher on Friday after India's largest public sector bank, State Bank of India, reported a healthy quarterly show. The lender's net profit zoomed over 80 per cent to Rs 6,451 crore in Q4FY21 as it set aside lower provisions and expected asset quality to improve going forward. 

Supported by rally in other financial stocks, the BSE barometer of 30-shares ended at 50,540 levels, up 976 points or 1.9 per cent. On NSE, the Nifty50 index advanced 269 points to settle above the crucial level of 15,150-level at 15,175. Both the indices hit their respective highs of 50,591 and 15,190. 

SBI was the second best gainer on the Sensex, up 4 per cent, while IndusInd Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC, and Kotak Mahindra Bank were the other top gainers, up between 3 per cent and 4.5 per cent. All these stocks contributed nearly 680 points towards the Sensex's total gains.

On the downside, Dr Reddy's Labs and Power Grid on the Sensex, and Eicher Motors, Indian Oil Corporation, Grasim, and SBI Life on the Nifty were the only only laggards on the indices, down up to 0.3 per cent. 

Financial indices -- Nifty Bank, Private Bank, PSU Bank, and Financial Services -- outperformed on the NSE today, and gained between 3-3.5 per cent. Meanwhile, all other sectoral indices settled up to 1 per cent higher. 

In the broader markets, the S&P BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices underperformed the benchmarks today and ended 0.8 per cent and 0.65 per cent higher, respectively.

Global markets

European stocks held steady on Friday as Swiss luxury goods maker Richemont jumped after its results, but a slide in London-listed shares and worries about inflation dampened early enthusiasm.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index was flat, with British stocks falling about half a per cent. 

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei was up 0.8 per cent and Australia's S&P/ASX200 gained 0.15 per cent. South Korea's Kospi and China CSI30 indices, however, slipped 0.2 per cent and 1 per cent, respectively.