Indian stock markets extended their gains on Friday, led by banking and pharma stocks. The S&P BSE Sensex closed at 24,616.97, up 278 points, or 1.14 percent, while the broad-based NSE Nifty settled at 7,489.10, with a gain of 85 points, or 1.15 percent.
The Sensex soared by 334 points to touch an intraday high of 24,672, but shed gains in the closing hours. The rally was predominantly led by bank and pharma stocks.
Lupin Pharma was the biggest Sensex gainer after the company declared a better-than-expected third quarter results. Net profit was Rs 530 crore, down 11.82 percent from Rs 601 crore in the year-ago period, while net sales inched 6 percent higher to Rs 3,358 crore, from Rs 3, 145 crore in the third quarter last fiscal. Lupin shares jumped almost 10 percent intraday to end the day at Rs 1,801.45.
Other top Sensex gainers included Axis Bank (up 4.40 percent), Cipla (up 3.58 percent), and Tata Steel (up 3.47 percent).
Tata Steel gained despite posting a consolidated loss of Rs 2,127 crore for the third quarter ended December 2015, as against a net profit of Rs 157 crore in the year-ago period. Net sales dropped by almost 16 percent to Rs.28,039 crore from Rs.33,323.8 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal.
Other Sensex gainers included Tata Motors, Dr Reddy's Labs, State Bank of India, Sun Pharma, ICICI Bank and Hero Motocorp.
Stocks that ended in the red included GAIL (India), Maruti Suzuki and Adani Ports.
On the Nifty, Cipla, Piramal Enterprises, Aurobindo Pharma, Glaxo, Sun Pharma and Glenmark ended with some big gains.
