The Sensex and Nifty closed higher on Friday, helped by a recovery in financials such as Housing Development Finance Corp, while stronger Asian markets after soft US inflation data soothed worries of faster rate hikes by the Federal Reserve also boosted sentiment.

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The benchmark Sensex closed up 0.82 per cent at 35,535.79, while the broader Nifty ended 0.84 per cent higher at 10,806.5. Both the indices closed at their highest level since February 1 and recorded their biggest weekly gain in five.

In the broader market, the BSE Midcap gains 0.4 per cent, while the BSE Smallcap underperformed to lose 0.1 per cent. 

Market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, remained negative. On the BSE, 1,544 stocks declined, 1,120 stocks rallied, while 141 stocks remained unchanged. 

"Market rallied supported by better quarter results and lower than expected US inflation which eased worries of faster rate hikes by Fed. Investors will closely watch data on domestic inflation and Karnataka election results which are due on next week. Surging oil prices and weak rupee are expected to impact inflation while easing geopolitical tension will add fuel to the market," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.

Among gainers, Asian Paints, Tata Steel, HDFC, Larsen and Toubro and ICICI Bank surged the most on Sensex, while Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma, Tata Motors (DVR), Hero MotoCorp and Tata Motors were the major losers.

On the Nifty, the top gainers were Asian Paints, Hindustan Petroleum and Indiabulls Housing Finance. The major losers were Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma and Titan. 

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Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular share prices tanked up to 8 per cent after their rival Reliance Jio Infocomm unveiled a new post-paid plan at almost half the price and with more data than those offered by Airtel, Idea or for that matter the non-listed telco Vodafone. Reacting to the news, Idea Cellular share price fell as much as 8.4 per cent to its 52-week low of Rs 53.45, while Bharti Airtel declined 5.8 per cent to Rs 388.30 on the BSE.

PC Jeweller share price pared all its early gains to lose over 5 per cent intraday on Friday as the buyback announcement failed to maintain far less boost the momentum. The stock rallied as much as 18.2 per cent on the BSE in early trade after the company announced its board has approved buyback of shares worth Rs 424 crore at an attractive price of Rs 350 per unit, a premium of 67 per cent against its Thursday's closing.

The stock settled at Rs 201.15, down 3.7 per cent on the BSE. 

Overseas, global markets rose as investor appetite for risky assets got a boost from soft US inflation numbers. The MSCI All Country World Index, which tracks shares in 47 countries, was up 0.3 percent and was set for its best week since March 9. The dollar was flat against a basket of currencies.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.7 per cent to near three-week highs with broad-based gains across all sectors. Japan’s Nikkei climbed 1.2 per cent.

(With inputs from Reuters)