Indian benchmark indices ended sharply higher on Friday, with the Sensex rallying 964.58 points and the Nifty closing above the 24,330 mark, driven by strong buying in Reliance Industries, banking, and IT stocks.

Broad-based buying across heavyweight counters boosted investor sentiment, helping the benchmarks post robust gains and finish the session near their day's highs.

The 30-share benchmark index ended at 78151.45 up by 964.58 points or by 1.25 % and then NSE Nifty was at 24334.3 up by 261.55 points or by 1.09 %.

Sensex touched intraday high of 78282.55 and intraday low of 77308 The NSE Nifty touched intraday high of 24367.3 and intraday low of 24099.05

The top gainers of the BSE Sensex pack were Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (Rs. 1570.50,+3.91%), Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. (Rs. 389.85,+3.37%), Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (Rs. 2268.25,+3.02%), Reliance Industries Ltd. (Rs. 1326.50,+2.59%), Hindustan Unilever Ltd. (Rs. 2144.10,+2.17%), among others.

The top losers of the BSE Sensex pack were Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Rs. 1933.10,-0.87%), Trent Ltd. (Rs. 2840.00,-0.68%), Bharti Airtel Ltd. (Rs. 1910.45,-0.59%), UltraTech Cement Ltd. (Rs. 11715.00,-0.55%), InterGlobe Aviation Ltd. (Rs. 5246.00,-0.40%), among others.

Bankex index was at 66194.59 up by 1026.82 points or by 1.58%. Federal Bank Ltd. (Rs. 348.80,+6.68%), Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. (Rs. 389.85,+3.37%), Axis Bank Ltd. (Rs. 1328.95,+1.86%), ICICI Bank Ltd. (Rs. 1441.90,+1.67%), HDFC Bank Ltd. (Rs. 819.65,+1.40%),.

CGS index was at 78121.89 down by -1064.26 points or by -1.34%. Kirloskar Oil Engines Ltd. (Rs. 2256.85,-5.76%), GE Vernova T&D India Ltd. (Rs. 4391.80,-4.23%), Hitachi Energy India Ltd. (Rs. 32097.55,-4.22%), Polycab India Ltd. (Rs. 8866.65,-3.79%), KEI Industries Ltd. (Rs. 4898.55,-3.44%),.

The Market breadth, indicating the overall strength of the market, was weak. On BSE out of total shares traded 4638 , shares advanced were 1793 while 2619 shares declined and 226 were unchanged.