Sensex Rallies 286 Points; Nifty Closes Above 8,150

(RTTNews) - Indian shares rose for a fourth consecutive session on Friday, with firm global cues and continued strength in rupee on the back of fresh foreign capital inflows supporting underlying sentiment.

The BSE Sensex rallied 286.92 points or 1.09 percent to settle at 26,653.60 and the broader Nifty index closed up 87 points or 1.08 percent at 8,156.65.

Both the indexes jumped about 5 percent during the week, marking their biggest weekly gain since March 4, as good monsoon forecasts and positive earnings updates from the likes of ITC, Tech Mahindra, Larsen & Toubro and BPCL spurred optimism for a broad-based economic recovery.

BPCL soared 8.5 percent today after the company reported solid quarterly results and announced a 1:1 bonus issue. State Bank of India climbed 9.3 percent despite reporting a bigger-than-expected 66 percent fall in fourth-quarter net profit on higher provisioning for bad loans.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries rallied 6.2 percent in the wake of impressive earnings results from its U.S. subsidiary Taro Pharmaceutical Industries. Among other prominent gainers, Reliance Industries, Adani Ports and Bank of Baroda advanced 3-4 percent.

Asian markets closed mostly higher and European stocks were flat to slightly higher in early trade, even as oil prices fell back below the key $50 threshold and data showed growth in profits at Chinese industrial firms slowed in April.

Traders awaited U.S. GDP data and comments from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen later in the day to see if an interest-rate increase is still in play for June's policy meeting.