The Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange on Friday recorded a two-month high, gaining 85.91 points to end at 17,644.76 on continued demand from local operators in a volatile trading session.

This was the seventh straight weekly gain for the benchmark indices for Indian equities,

The stock markets remained closed Wednesday because of Ram Navmi.   

The 30-share index Sensex surged 66.53 points to mark its closure at 17,644.76 on Friday. In contrast, the broader S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also registered gains to close the week at 5,282 after gaining 19.2 points.

Data with SEBI showed that foreign funds purchased shares worth $492.32 million in the four trading days.

Mid-sized stocks witnessed very little changes compared to last week's closing, with the BSE midcap index ending almost unchanged Friday.   

Lesser valued scrips, however, saw selling pressure with the BSE small cap index closing 0.79% down.

The major gainers in the Sensex included HDFC Bank, Rel Power, HUL, Cipla and ONGC.   

The major losers comprised DLF, Tata Motors, ACC, HDFC and Rel Cap.   

According to the BSE, the sectors that drew interest included healthcare and banking. But real estate remained down with its BSE sectoral indices closing 4%down.

Other Asian markets were a mixed bag for the week. The Japanese Nikkei surged 1.59%to touch 10,996.37.

But, the Hang Seng of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange declined 1.49% at 21,053.11, and the Chinese Shanghai composite index dropped 0.26% at 3,059.72.

In Europe, buying outlooks were dominating with the London's FTSE climbing 0.94%over the week to close at 5,703.02, whereas the German DAX ended 2.3%up at 6,120.05.