Sensex jumps 279 points

Market benchmark Sensex jumped 279 points on Friday, in line with advances in global equities but logged a fourth weekly loss in five, as investor sentiment remained guided by fluctuations in crude oil prices and economic uncertainties.

Both Sensex and Nifty slumped for the fourth week since the start of the year. The former dropped 253.7 points or about one per cent, while the latter fell 74.5 points or 0.9 per cent.

On the day, all the sectoral indices ended in green with the shares of metal, health care and banking recording gains. "We are seeing signs of sharp improvement in global sentiment with a fall in the dollar index, highlighting a chance of change in preference to risky assets like EMs (emerging markets)," said Vinod Nair Head of Fundamental Research, Geojit BNP Paribas.

The BSE Sensex opened higher at 24,360 and shot up further to 24,673, before ending at 24,617, showing a gain of 278.5 points or 1.1 per cent. The index had risen 115.1 points on Thursday.

The 50-share NSE Nifty after testing the 7,500-mark to hit a high of 7,503, ended 85.1 points or 1.1 per cent higher at 7,489. Shares of drug major Lupin was the top gainer among Sensex constituents, with a gain of about nine per cent to close at Rs 1,801.5, despite reporting about 12 per cent decline in consolidated net profit.

Reliance Infrastructure and other group companies surged by as much as seven per cent, after RInfra sold its cement business arm to Birla Corporation for Rs 4,800 crore, a deal that will help Anil Ambani-led Group lower its debt burden.

Overseas, Asian and European stocks showed a mixed trend amid reduced expectations of further interest rate increases from the US Federal Reserve this year.

Japanese stocks fell by 1.32 per cent after the yen strengthened against the dollar. Key indexes in China and Taiwan moved down by 0.63 per cent to 0.84 per cent while Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea firmed up by 0.08 per cent to 2.53 per cent.

Key European indexes, like France and the UK firmed up by 0.55 per cent to 0.68 per cent while Germany's DAX was quoted marginally lower by 0.04 per cent.