Mumbai, Nov 29 (IANS) The Indian stock market closed in green on Friday as both the equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty witnessed a strong rally. With this strong comeback of the indices, the market recovered from the previous session's sell-off due to F&O (futures and options) expiry.  Sensex closed at 79,802.79 after a gain of 759.05 points or 0.96 per cent. Nifty closed at 24,131.10 after a gain of 216.95 points or 0.91 per cent. The domestic stock market increased due to better investor sentiment and stock-specific activities.

Nifty Bank was up 148.75 points or 0.29 per cent to 52,055.60. Nifty midcap 100 index closed at 56,392.65 after a gain of 91.90 points or 0.16 per cent. Nifty smallcap 100 index closed at 18,650.95 after rising 139.40 points or 0.75 per cent. According to market experts, "A large-cap-driven, broad-based rally ensued in the domestic market. Discretionary sectors performed well, benefiting from the festive season. The pharma and healthcare sectors saw renewed growth, supported by strong earnings and a moderation in valuations after recent corrections."

"The anticipated slowdown in India's Q2 GDP to 6.5 per cent has already been reflected in Q2 corporate earnings, which the market appears to have discounted. Meanwhile, global sentiment remained subdued due to the appreciation of the Japanese yen, as inflation stayed above the central bank's tolerance level," they said.

On the sectoral indices, pharma, healthcare, commodities, infra, media, energy and auto were major gainers. However, PSU bank and realty were major losers. In the Sensex pack, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma, M&M, Ultra Tech Cement, Adani Ports, L&T, JSW Steel, Hindustan Unilever Limited and Titan were the top gainers. Power Grid, Nestle India, SBI and Infosys were the top losers. On the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), 2334 shares were traded in green and 1,608 in red. Whereas, there was no change in 127 shares.

/IANS