The markets had a firm closing thanks to gains in index heavyweights such as HDFC, TCS and ONGC.
The Sensex ended at 27,957, higher by 148 points or 0.5% and the Nifty settled at 8,458, up 38 points in voilatile session.
The midcap and smallcap indices however underperformed the benchmark indices to end flat at 10,619 and 11,207 respectively.
The markets had touched their highest levels in a month, with the Sensex re-claiming the psychological 28,000 mark earlier in the trading session to touch an intra-day high of 28,071.
Meanwhile, the southwest monsoon has reportedly advanced further and arrived over Sri Lanka. The private weather forecaster Skymet has said that Weather conditions favour the advancement of Southwest Monsoons, indicating its timely onset over Kerala.
In economy-related news, the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley reportedly said at a news conference to mark the first year of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government in power that India should bring down its effective tax rate to global levels.
RUPEE
The rupee was trading strong by 12 paise at 63.52 against the dollar in the late-afternoon session on continued dollar selling amid a rally in the equity market.
The local currency had surged 18 paise to 63.64 in Thursday's session on fresh selling of the dollar amid the latter’s weakness in overseas markets.
According to the forex dealers, sustained selling of the dollar, the dollar’s weakness against other currencies overseas and a firm domestic equity market supported the rupee at the Interbank Foreign Exchange.
