The Indian benchmark indices continue to trade higher on Friday. Sectoral indices led by auto, banks, FMCG, metal are trading in green.

In the individual stocks, the shares of HDFC Bank rallied 10 per cent marking their highest intraday gain in over 30 months, after the government announced corporate tax rate cut. The corporate tax rate was cut by 800 basis points to 22 per cent, without any exemption, from 30 per cent.

At 13:26 hours, the SENSEX was trading at 37927.62 up by 1834.15 points or by 5.08 per cent and then NSE Nifty was at 11265.65 up by 560.85 points or by 5.24 per cent. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 38048.93 and intraday low of 36085.74 The NSE Nifty touched intraday high of 11272.8 and intraday low of 10691.

The top gainers of the BSE Sensex were Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. (Rs. 6584.90,+10.89%), IndusInd Bank Ltd. (Rs. 1416.00,+10.46%), Tata Motors Ltd. (Rs. 61.90,+9.36%), Bajaj Finance Ltd. (Rs. 3670.30,+9.14%), Tata Steel Ltd. (Rs. 376.30,+9.09%), among others.

The top losers of the BSE Sensex were NTPC Ltd. (Rs. 119.20,-2.09%), Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (Rs. 2071.10,-1.48%), Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (Rs. 700.60,-0.41%), HCL Technologies Ltd. (Rs. 1045.75,-0.32%), Infosys Ltd. (Rs. 819.00,-0.24%), among others.

Among sectors, Bankex index was at 32480.5 up by 2330.2 points or by 7.73%. RBL Bank Ltd. (Rs. 383.75,+15.50%), Federal Bank Ltd. (Rs. 94.40,+13.05%), IndusInd Bank Ltd. (Rs. 1416.00,+10.46%), State Bank of India (Rs. 297.95,+8.72%), ICICI Bank Ltd. (Rs. 417.85,+8.10%),.

On the flip side, IT index was at 15689.94 down by -60.78 points or by -0.39%. Quick Heal Technologies Ltd. (Rs. 135.25,-4.42%), 3i Infotech Ltd. (Rs. 2.09,-2.79%), MosChip Technologies Ltd. (Rs. 14.13,-2.55%), 8K Miles Software Services Ltd. (Rs. 60.10,-2.12%), Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd. (Rs. 1530.80,-1.73%),.

The Market breadth, indicating the overall strength of the market, was weak. On BSE out of total shares traded 2677 , shares advanced were 1804 while 698 shares declined and 175 were unchanged.