Positive December quarter results and Reserve Bank of India’s decision to keep interest rates unchanged while maintaining its accommodative stance to revive growth kept equity benchmarks afloat on Friday amid volatility.

After briefly surging to hit the 51,000 mark, S&P BSE Sensex ended 117.34 points or 0.23 per cent higher at its fresh closing record of 50,731.63.

Similarly, NSE Nifty closed at its all-time high of 14,924.25, up 28.60 points or 0.19 per cent. It had also scaled to the 15,000 mark during the day but shed some ground before closing day’s trade.

Gainers on the Sensex pack were led by country’s largest state run lender SBI, rallying over 10 per cent, followed by Kotak Bank, Dr Reddy’s, UltraTech Cement, ITC and HDFC Bank.

On the other hand, top laggards included Axis Bank, Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank, Maruti, HCL Tech, among others.

Unlike Sensex and Nifty, broader markets MidCap and SmallCap ended with losses at 0.93 and 0.28 per cent respectively.

Domestic equities remained buoyant and benchmark Nifty surpassed the psychologically-key 15,000 level before settling lower, said Binod Modi, Head Strategy at Reliance Securities.

“Notably, RBI policy outcome was also broadly on expected line, while announcements about allowing retail participation in bond markets through GILT Account, extension of HTM restoration to 19.5 per cent up to June’23 and availability of funds under on tap TLTRO for NFBCs bolstered investors’ confidence,” he said.

Banking index, especially PSU banks, witnessed sharp rally, followed by pharma and FMCG indices.

Earlier in the day, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) kept interest rates on hold while assuring to maintain support for reflating the economy by ensuring ample liquidity to manage the government’s near-record borrowing.

The six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted to continue with the accommodative stance as long as necessary to revive growth and mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the economy while ensuring that inflation remains within the target, Governor Shaktikanta Das said.

Elsewhere in Asia, indices in Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo ended with gains, while Shanghai was in the red.

Stock exchanges in Europe were also trading on a positive note in mid-session deals.

Meanwhile, the global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.95 per cent higher at USD 59.56 per barrel.