Sensex up 254 points, Indiabulls Housing surges 14.7%

Equity benchmark indices ended higher for the second consecutive day on Friday, a day after reports said that the government is likely to roll back the recently-imposed higher tax on foreign portfolio investors (FPIs).

The introduction of a surcharge on higher income brackets announced in the Budget by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had led to a brisk selloff by FPIs.

The BSE S&P Sensex closed 255 points higher at 37,582 while the Nifty 50 edged up by 77 points to 11,110. However, sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were mixed.

Nifty auto up by 2%, financial services by 1.5%, private banks by 1.2% and realty by 0.8%. But IT, media, metal, pharma and PSU banks were in the negative territory.

Among stocks, Indiabulls Housing Finance gained by 14.77% to close at Rs 510 per share. Eicher Motors was up by 4.7%, Titan by 3.4%, Maruti by 3.3% and Bajaj Finserv by 2.8%.

However, Yes Bank tanked by 7.85% to close at Rs 82.20 per share. Pharma major Cipla was down by 3.6%, Tech Mahindra by 2.5%, Hindalco by 2.2% and Coal India by 2.1%.

Meanwhile, Asian indices saw a positive start led by the Japanese Nikkei and South Korean Kospi but fresh concerns about US-China trade ties were likely to limit gains.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.2%. Japan's Nikkei average advanced 0.4% while South Korean stocks gained 0.89%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite were in the red.