Indian equities ended the week on a positive note on Friday (Oct 31), on account of continued buying action across board in frontline stocks.

Though the stock market lost its way for a moment during afternoon trading because of a negative closure on the Asian stock markets and a weak start in European markets, frenzied buying action in the final hour of trade boosted it to a strong closure on yesterday.

The US Federal Reserve cut bank rates by 50 basis points, and various other central banks are likely to follow suit sooner than later.

Metal, oil & gas, banking, auto and IT stocks were the major gainers. BSE Midcap and Smallcap index declined 3.41% and 2.46% respectively.

Among the sectoral indices, BSE Metal soared 10.20% followed by Oil & gas, which zoomed 9.11%, Bankex rose 7.21% and Auto climbed up 6.39%.

Finally, the 30-share index BSE Sensex closed the day after gaining 743.55 points at 9,788.06. It also hit an intra-day high of 9,870.42 and an intra-day low of 9,361.66.

On the other hand, the broad-based NSE Nifty surged 188.55 points at 2,885.60 after touching an intra-day high of 2,921.35 and an intra-day low of 2,696.30.

The major gainers in the 30-share index included Mahindra & Mahindra (23.09%), Housing Development Finance Corporation (17.48%), Jaiprakash Associates (16.55%), ICICI Bank (15.50%), Sterlite Industries (India) (14.48%) and Reliance Industries (13.81%).

Ranbaxy Laboratories (1.97%) and Tata Consultancy Services (0.93%) were the major losers in the Sensex.

The inflationary figures declined to 10.68% for the week ended October 18, as compared with 11.07 per cent for the previous week. The annual rate of inflation was 3.11 per cent in the corresponding period a year ago.