The benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty ended sharply positive on Friday (Jan 16) on the back of sustained buying action witnessed in index pivotals.

The uptrend was powered by oil & gas stocks followed by power, metal, PSU and bank stocks. Telecom stocks surged higher on sustained buying support. Capital goods stocks rallied.

Auto, IT and FMCG stocks got well after staying quiet till a little past mid afternoon. Pharmaceutical and consumer durables stocks zoomed during late trade, while realty stocks dropped.

Though the benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty closed strongly, the market breadth was just marginally positive at close as several midcap and smallcap stocks drifted lower on selling pressure.

BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained 0.53% and 0.07% respectively.

Among the sectoral indices, BSE Oil & gas gained 5.09%, Power surged 4.29%, Metal increased 3.45%, while Realty dipped 2.39%.

The 30-share index, BSE Sensex belled the day at 9,125.65, up 78.91 points, on Friday and continued to trade positive all-through the day.

Finally, the Sensex closed the day after making a gain of 276.85 points at 9,323.59. It also touched an intra-day high of 9,342.47 and an intra-day low of 9,125.65.

The broad-based NSE Nifty gained 91.75 points at 2,828.45 after touching an intra-high of 2,835.65 and an intra-day low of 2,724.20.

On BSE, 1,241 ended the session with gains, 1,162 stocks recorded losses while 94 stocks closed the day on a flat note.

Major gainers in the 30-share index were NTPC (7.7%), Reliance Infrastructure (7.35%), Reliance Industries (6.6%), Tata Power (4.9%), Reliance Communications (4.8%) and Bharti Airtel (4.8%) closed with strong gains.

The stocks, which gained 3% to 4% included ONGC, ICICI Bank, Hindalco, BHEL and Tata Steel.

Sterlite Industries, ITC, Jaiprakash Associates, HDFC, Larsen & Toubro, State Bank of India, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hindustan Unilever, Tata Motors, Wipro, HDFC Bank, Infosys Technologies and Sun Pharmaceuticals closed the day positively after gaining 1-2.6%.

Other gainers included RNRL, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, Essar Oil, Indian Oil Corporation, Aban Offshore, Neyveli Lignite Corporation, Torrent Power, Lanco Infratech, GMR Infrastructure, Sesa Goa, Jindal Steel, NMDC, Welspun Gujarat, Ispat Industries, Jai Corp, Gujarat NRE Coke, Federal Bank, Yes Bank, Bank of India, Kotak Bank, Union Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, Axis Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, IDBI Bank, IndusInd Bank, Bank of Baroda, Dena Bank, Corporation Bank and Indian Bank.

On the other hand, the major losers in the Sensex were DLF (3.51%), Tata Consultancy Services (1.38%), Grasim Industries (1.11%), ACC (0.27%) and Maruti Suzuki India (0.22%).

The volume of business on the stock markets fell sharply. On NSE, the turnover at Rs 7,268.79 crore, was far lower than the turnover of Rs 8,178.88 crore the exchange registered during the previous session.