Led by financials, Sensex surges nearly 1,000 points as Covid begins to recedes

Sensex surged nearly 1,000 points on Friday as daily Covid cases in the country continued to fall. Financial stocks led the upward trend.

Indian shares closed higher on Friday, as financial stocks jumped after State Bank of India's (SBI) quarterly earnings, with sentiment aided by a fall in daily Covid-19 infections. The blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 index added 1.81% to close at 15,175.30, while the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex gained 1.97% to end at 50,540.80. For the week, both the indexes rose more than 3%. Daily cases of the novel coronavirus in India stayed below the 300,000-mark for the fifth straight day, well below the record of more than 414,000 earlier this month.