Sensex Heads for a 1% Rise for the Week

The BSE Sensex gained 70.3 points or 0.1% to 60,928.8 in morning trade on Friday and was set for a 1% rise for the week, after continued selling from the foreign traders, overseas investors finally turned net buyers of local shares.

Traders were upbeat after the RBI said in its monthly bulletin published on Thursday that the central bank's monetary policy objective is to hold inflation with a mandated tolerance band.

Annual inflation eased to 5.72% in December from 5.88% in November, dipping below 6% for a second straight month after having stayed above the central bank's tolerance band of 2%-6% for 10 months.

In China, the PBOC held the key interest rate unchanged for the fifth straight month.

PSU Bank and IT stocks led the rise.

Among individual shares, Tata Motors rose 1.7%, Coal India 1.3%, and HDFC Bank gained 1.3%.

State Bank of India increased 1%, after Moody's on Friday affirmed a positive rating for the bank.