Nifty inches closer to 12,000, Sensex up by 326 points; Banks & HFCs rally, Parag Milk zooms 14.8 per cent

Sensex continued its forward march on the last day of a bullish week, gaining by 326 points or 0.81 per cent to close at 40,509 levels. Nifty jumped by 79.60 points or 0.67 per cent to close at 11,914 levels. 

Banks led the market rally in today's session with HDFC Bank single-handedly contributing to almost 50 per cent of Sensex gains. Housing Finance Companies (HFCs) rallied in today's trade with LIC housing Finance leading the pack of HFCs.  

5Paisa Capital sizzled in today's trade and was locked in the upper circuit for most of the trading session. The stock closed up by nearly 4 per cent or Rs 13.90 per share at Rs 365.10 per share.  

Mid-caps and Small-caps started the day on a positive note only to slide down as the day progressed. BSE Small-Cap index closed down by 0.29 per cent while BSE Mid-Cap Index slipped by 0.42 per cent. LIC Housing Finance, with gains of more than 7 per cent, was the top mid-cap gainer, followed by PNB Housing Finance and RBL, which gained 6.3 per cent and 3.6 per cent, respectively. 

Parag Milk Foods was the top small-cap gainer, up by nearly 15 per cent, followed by Aditya Birla Money, which was up by 10.88 per cent and Kilitch Drugs (India) Ltd that gained nearly 10 per cent on Friday. 

The top Sensex gainers in today's session were ICICI Bank up by 3.99 per cent, Axis Bank gained by 3.74 per cent, HDFC Bank strengthened by 3.62 per cent, SBI jumped 3.52 per cent and L&T rose by 3.29 per cent. 

Top Sensex losers included Sun Pharmaceutical Industries that was down by 2.04 per cent, Asian Paints slipped by 1.85 per cent, Nestle India slid by 1.68 per cent, UltraTech Cement fell by 1.16 per cent and Hindustan Unilever weakened by 0.92 per cent. 

On the sectoral front, the markets remained divided with BSE Metals, BSE Oil & Gas, BSE Capital Goods, BSE Bankex, BSE IT indices closing in green, in which, BSE Bankex became the top sectoral gainer by recording gains of more than 3 per cent.

On the other hand, BSE Realty, BSE Healthcare, BSE Telecom, and BSE Auto were the top sectoral losers wherein BSE Realty turned out to be the worst performer in today's session, slipping by 1.58 per cent.

European markets were mixed with German DAX trading flat with minor losses and FTSE up by 0.70 per cent and CAC40 gaining 0.35 per cent. Asian market traded mix with Shanghai skyrocketing by 1.68 per cent, Hang Seng down by 0.31 per cent and Nikkei slipping by 0.12 per cent.