Sensex, Nifty End Higher On Trade Deal Hopes

(RTTNews) - Indian shares rose on Friday as rising jobless claims coupled with in-line U.S. consumer price inflation data spurred expectations for more Federal Reserve rate cuts.

Investor sentiment was also buoyed by Infosys' largest-ever share buyback of Rs. 18,000 crore and comments by U.S. Ambassador nominee Sergio Gor that India and the U.S. are close to finalizing a trade deal, with high-level talks set in Washington next week.

Gor said that both countries are already in advanced negotiations, and that the differences between them are now very small.

The benchmark BSE Sensex rose 355.97 points, or 0.44 percent, to 81,904.70, with IT, auto and financial stocks leading the uptrend.

The broader NSE Nifty index closed up 108.50 points, or 0.43 percent, at 25,114, extending its winning run to an eighth straight session.

The BSE mid-cap and small-cap indexes ended up 0.1 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively.

The market breadth was slightly positive on the BSE, with 2,080 shares rising while 2,064 shares declined and 145 shares closed unchanged.

Among the top gainers, BEL surged 3.7 percent and Bajaj Finance rallied 3.2 percent.

Infosys, Larsen & Toubro, ICICI Bank, Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki India, Axis Bank and Bajaj FinServ climbed 1-2 percent while Trent, Hindustan Unilever and Eternal dropped 1-2 percent.