Sensex at highest close in 2 months

The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex on Friday gained 312 points on buying mainly in heavyweight stocks led by bank, auto and realty sectors.

The Sensex, which lost nearly 91.15 points on Wednesday, bounced back to close higher by 312.81 points at 17,600.12, after touching the day's high of 17,621.24 and low of 17,445.93 points.

The market remained closed on Thursday.

The stock market barometer rose 11 per cent in April, its first monthly gain in 2008, paring the decline of 13.6 per cent from January till date.

The wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty rose 62.30 points at 5,228.20. It surged close to 5,300 points level by reaching 5,298.85 during the day and experienced a low of 5,197.60 points.

Banking stocks were the best performers as the sectoral index rose the most by 322.50 points at 9,142.18 as Sensex-related ICICI Bank shot up by Rs 56.10 at Rs 1,935.50.

State Bank of India rose by Rs 45.80 at Rs 1,822.15. Auto index rose by 135.15 points at 4,861.15 after the index-linked Maruti Suzuki rose on better sales result in April.

Realty sector index surged by 213.20 points at 8,718.69 as heavy-weight DLF Ltd rose after the country's biggest developer reported fourth-quarter profit gains.

However, metal index fell by 251.23 points at 15,863.17 as stocks of leading metal Companies like Tata Steel, Sterlite, National Alluminium, Jindal Saw, Hindustan Zinc and Bhushan Steel fell sharply