Kotak Mahindra Bank was the biggest gainer on both the indices, ending nearly 9 per cent higher following reports that Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc was planning to pick up stake in the private sector lender.
Financial shares were among the top gainers with HDFC leading the gains.
Top gainers of the session included Bajaj Auto, Kotak Bank, M&M, Vedanta, IndusInd Bank, Asian Paints, HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, HUL, HDFC, ITC, Tata Steel and Tata Motors, rallying up to 5 per cent.
Forecasts of a further rise in bullion prices keep Indians away from selling gold.
As we say shalom to 2016, the key drivers for the markets in the year ahead have become more obvious, says Neeraj Gambhir, managing director and head of fixed income, India, Nomura. First, there is a surging dollar. Second, rising commodity prices. Then, we have the effects of demonetisation.
Christine Lagarde warned of a repeat of high market volatility.
Demonetisation will wipe out the likely benefits of a good monsoon this year, says Christopher Wood of CLSA.
With the frontline Indian benchmark indices trading near all-time highs ahead of the general elections that begin later this week, Marc Faber, Editor and Publisher of "The Gloom, Boom & Doom Report" tells Puneet Wadhwa that the Indian stock market is relatively expensive, especially the index (large-cap) stocks.
Foreign brokerage HSBC has said it expects the rupee to trade at 60-levels by December against the dollar even though risks on the domestic unit from both external and domestic fronts have increased.
Sectorally, metal and banking stocks rallied the most, while FMCG and realty stocks came under selling pressure.
Political risk culminating from elections in the US and Latin America, and evolving right-wing populism in Europe could lead to substantial volatility, say Abheek Barua & Tushar Arora.
At present, the repo rate acts as the policy rate when liquidity is in deficit mode while reverse repo becomes the operating rate when there liquidity is surplus.
After its various corrections since Diwali, the stock market is expected to settle and consolidate in the next few days, with most uncertainties thought to have been priced in. That applies to the telecom scam-related implications, too, as long as its toll does not go beyond ministers and no more bad news comes from European countries. Most players believe there are several good stocks at attractive valuations.
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The basis of Ind-Ra's expectation of INR appreciation is based on economic developments in the last one to two months of this fiscal and the likely developments in the remaining months.
Despite a slowing economy, the Budget does not envisage any major stimulus through the budgeted fiscal deficit figures, said Goldman Sachs.
Indian equities are in a multi-year bull story with capex cycle recovery as the main driver.
Analysts expect global markets to remain in consolidation mode with a negative bias over the next six months.
'Demonetisation will push India onto a higher growth path after a temporary dip.'
Indian markets on Thursday shrugged off any negative impact.
'Equities are likely to be range-bound with a downward bias for the remaining part of the year.'
Research shows the US Fed doesn't get its predictions right as often as we would like to believe. With India and China in an upbeat mood, the dark days of last September are slowly fading in memory.
A fall presents an opportunity to buy rate-sensitive stocks.
As global markets near all-time highs driven by liquidity, Marc Faber suggests most asset prices worldwide are inflated.
High frequency indicators suggest that a growth recovery is underway, but very tentatively and with weak legs, says Saugata Bhattacharya.
Gold extended its slump for the second day and shed another ₹ 350 to hit a six-month low of ₹ 29,000 per 10 grams in the bullion market.
Silver coins also tumbled by Rs 1,000 to Rs 52,000 for buying and Rs 53,000 for selling of 100 pieces.
Market sentiment suffered a jolt after other Asian markets closed with widespread losses and European markets dropped in early trade
US Fed rate rise raises risk of further drying up of FII flows.
'Markets are likely to remain choppy for the next 6 months.'
Telecom, metal and healthcare came as dampeners.
Global events will continue to be in the limelight, besides domestic policy.
Since 2005, in 8 out of 10 years (except in CY11 and CY14) the benchmark indices have given positive returns in December.
The rupee had closed at 64.83 last Friday.
A substantial fluctuation is likely because for a long period gold has moved in a narrow range of $ 50-60 and at higher levels short positions were built.
And why markets could give up 25 per cent of all these gains made since March 2020
'Going ahead, I think the world trade will slow down or decline, and this will be bad for everybody.'
It is thought that the RBI has been accumulating dollars to fight odds.
Heavyweights such as Coal India, L&T and SBI ran up losses, taking cues from overseas markets.
Mark Mobius, co-founder, Mobius Capital Partners, tells Puneet Wadhwa that investors should concentrate more on "value" rather than momentum, and on good small- and medium-sized companies rather than large-caps.
While the Fed and the ECB slash and raise rates when needed, the RBI seems to move in just one direction.
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