Indian shares rose marginally to hit record highs on Friday, helped by a surge in IT stocks after their U.S. peer Accenture posted a better-than-expected quarterly profit.
The benchmark Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex opened flat, but soon clawed higher by 0.2% each to all-time highs of 26,254.05 points and 85,935.31, respectively.
The benchmarks were on track for their third consecutive weekly rise, continuing their strong performance this year.
The indexes have risen for seven days on the back of an outsized US rate cut last Wednesday, which bolstered expectations of more foreign inflows into emerging markets such as India.
IT companies, which have the second-heaviest weightage among the major sectors and earn a big chunk of their revenue from US clients, rose as much as 3% and were set for their best day in over a month after Accenture posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings due to strong demand for its AI services.
Market leaders Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Wipro and HCLTech were up between 1% and 1.5%.
Metal stocks also supported gains, adding 1.4% on higher global prices, after Chinese officials pledged stimulus to boost China's struggling economy.
The prospect of Chinese growth upswing has boosted hopes for a global metals' demand revival, which in turn, should reduce low-cost imports to countries such as India, analysts said.
Metal firms Hindalco, Vedanta, Tata Steel and JSW Steel advanced between 1.2% and 2.5%.
Gains on Indian indexes were kept in check by a 0.4% drop in top-weighted financial stocks, which fell after rising more than 1% in the prior two sessions.
"The banking and financials...have performed well in the recent weeks and (are) seeing (a) marginal dip due to some profit taking at higher levels", Ajit Mishra, senior vice president of research at Religare Broking said.
"Participants should continue with (a) 'buy on dips' approach especially in the private banking majors and select NBFCs (non-bank finance companies)."
