Sensex, Nifty Rally On Firm Global Cues; Banks Lead Charge

(RTTNews) - Indian shares rallied on Friday, mirroring firm cues from global markets after Friday's U.S. inflation data largely met estimates and diplomatic efforts intensified to reach a long-sought truce and hostage-release deal in Gaza.

Banks topped the gainers list following encouraging earnings reports from a slew of private sector banks.

The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex ended the session up 941.12 points, or 1.28 percent, at 74,671.28 after U.S. equities notched the best weekly rally of 2024 on the back of blowout earnings reports from technology heavyweights Alphabet and Microsoft as well as encouraging inflation data that contained no big surprises.

The broader NSE Nifty index settled 223.45 points, or 1 percent, higher at 22,643.40. ICICI Bank shares surged 4.4 percent after the private sector lender reported a 17 percent increase in Q4 profit and higher spending on information technology and cybersecurity.

Peers SBI, IndusInd Bank and Axis Bank followed suit to rise nearly 3 percent each. Among the prominent decliners, HCL Technologies lost 5.8 percent on weak FY25 guidance.

Apollo Hospitals Enterprise plunged 4.7 percent after PE firm Advent International agreed to invest 24.75 billion rupees (nearly $297 million) in its unit Apollo HealthCo.