Mumbai: Fag-end buying saved the day for domestic market as the BSE Sensex reversed all of its early losses and settle 204.46 points higher at 27,214.60 Friday, tracking firm global cues, while Nifty reclaimed the 8,200-level.
In early trade, the 30-share Sensex cracked below the 27,000-mark by dropping 93 points to hit a low of 26,917.12 as investors booked profits in recent gainers after the country's exports in September dropped for the tenth straight month.
However, on across-the-board buying in late session, the index recovered from early losses to end at 27,214.60, up 204.46 points or 0.76 percent.
Meanwhile, the 50-issue NSE Nifty recaptured the crucial 8,200-mark and settled 58.65 points or 0.72 percent higher at 8,238.15. It slipped to a low of 8,147.65 during the day.
With today's late rally, both Sensex and Nifty climbed 135.09 points (0.49 percent) and 48.45 points (0.59 percent), respectively, for the week, to log third-straight weekly rise.
Market commenced lower as participants locked in gains in blue-chips that made sizeable grounds in yesterday's session amid slump in exports and a weakening rupee.
Country's exports shrunk for the tenth straight month by 24.33 percent in September to USD 21.84 billion due to steep fall inbound shipments of petroleum products, iron ore, and engineering goods amid tepid global demand.
Reliance Industries, which surged 1.07 percent at Rs 913.70 ahead of its Q2 earnings, helped in the success story.
Moreover, Maruti Suzuki continued its upward journey and gathered another 1.56 percent to Rs 4,448 on expectations of pick up in its sales during the ongoing festive season.
Other stocks from the auto space too perked up with Tata Motors rising by 1.72 percent to Rs 387.25, followed by M&M 1.19 percent, Bajaj Auto 0.42 percent and Hero MotoCorp 0.88 percent. Out of the 30-share Sensex, 20 ended higher.
Gains in L&T, SBI, ONGC, HDFC Bank, HDFC, ICICI Bank, Dr Reddy's, NTPC, Axis Bank, ONGC, Cipla, BHEL, GAIL, TCS and Sun Pharma also contributed.
Globally, Asian markets closed at almost two-month highs. Hong Kong's Hang Seng ended 0.78 percent higher, while Shanghai Composite closed 1.60 percent up. Japan's Nikkei too up 1.08 percent.
European markets were slightly higher in their early trade as another batch of weaker-than-estimated economic reports from China, Europe and the US boosted hopes that central banks will maintain stimulus measures.
Back home, broader markets too performed well, with the mid-cap index gaining 0.38 percent and small-cap 0.05 rising percent as investors continued their buying activity.
Sectorally, the BSE capital goods index gained the most by rising 1.83 percent, followed by banking 1.30 percent, oil & gas 1.16 percent, auto 0.87 percent and power 0.65 percent.
Bucking the trend, telecom stocks, Idea Cellular and Bharti Airtel, witnessed selling pressure, falling as much as 1.44 percent, after regulator TRAI raised the penalty on operators for call drops on mobiles and poor service.
Shares of Idea Cellular declined by 3.24 percent to Rs 147.65, while Bharti Airtel was down 2.98 percent to Rs 340.95 on BSE.
