Sensex closes 1 percent higher; weather forecast boosts

(Reuters) - Indian shares ended 1 percent higher on Friday, reversing two sessions of losses, on gains in financial and consumer stocks, buoyed by a favourable weather forecast for the remainder of the monsoon.

The benchmark BSE Sensex closed up 1.05 percent at 37,556.16 after losing close to 500 points in the last two sessions. For the week, the index ended 0.6 percent higher.

The broader NSE Nifty ended 1.03 percent higher at 11,360.8, and gained 0.73 percent for the week. It had lost nearly 1 percent in the previous two sessions.

Index heavyweight Housing Development Finance Corp closed up 2.5 percent, after raising its retail prime lending rate by 20 basis points a day earlier. It had shed 4.8 percent in the previous three sessions.

Consumer major ITC Ltd ended 1.6 percent higher.

(Reporting by Arnab Paul in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair)