Indian shares settled higher on Friday and clocked a 1.7% gain for the week, as investors stayed hopeful of a pickup in business activity in a coronavirus-hit economy and took their cue from a tech-driven rally on Wall Street.
India's blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 index gave up some of its gains from earlier on Friday, as conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd turned negative to settle 0.7% lower.
Banking stocks rose 1.36%, led by a 2.5% gain in HDFC Bank Ltd. Among state-run lenders, the Bank of Maharashtra gained 15%.
The Nifty 50 ended up 0.53% at 11,371.60, about 0.3% shy of its more than five-month closing high on Wednesday. The S&P BSE Sensex closed up 0.56% at 38,434.72.
Investors were counting on business activity bouncing back in India, which has helped beaten-down stocks in sectors such as real estate see a revival, analysts said on Friday.
The Nifty realty index settled 1.24% higher on Friday. The index has surged 11.5% in August alone, but is still down 25% since the start of the year.
In signs of support to business activity, India's capital New Delhi allowed hotels and weekly outdoor markets to re-open this week after months of restrictions, while the federal government said it had paid out Rs 1 trillion ($13.3 billion) in loans to support small businesses hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Global stock markets, meanwhile, rose on Friday following a tech-driven Wall Street rally that powered the Nasdaq to a record closing high, but tepid economic data and lofty valuations reined in the advances.
