Mumbai, July 10 (IANS) Benchmark indices of Indian equities markets nudged up during the week as traders booked profits in heavyweights which had soared in two weeks of trade, while mid-valued scrips continued to see buying support as foreign funds pumped in substantial amounts.
Foreign institutional investors, were among the largest buyers at Indian bourses, having lapped up stocks worth over $1.2 billion from June 30 to June 8, according to data available with the Securities and Exchange Board of India.
It was the third successive weekly positive closing for the 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) ended the week at 18,858.04 points, up 0.51 percent or 95.24 points compared to last Friday's close at 18,762.8 points.
At the National Stock Exchange, the 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty closed 0.59 percent or 33.45 points up at 5,660.65 points Friday.
Broader markets did relatively better with the BSE midcap index closing 1.37 percent up and the BSE smallcap index ending 1.83 percent higher from last week's levels.
Food inflation softening and concerns over the Greece sovereign debt crisis abating, were among the main reasons for foreign investors to look positively at emerging markets like India.
On a weekly basis, the top gainers on the Sensex were DLF (up 11.4 percent), Reliance Infra (up 7.9 percent), Tata Motors (up 4.7 percent) and Hindalco (up 2.7 percent).
Sensex losers included RIL (down 5.1 percent), ONGC (down 4.1 percent), Sterlite Industries (down 4 percent), ICICI Bank (down 3.9 percent) and BHEL (down 3.5 percent).
Asian markets too closed higher this week.
The Nikkei of the Japanese stock exchange ended 2.53 percent higher on a weekly basis at 10,137.73 points.
The Hang Seng of the Hong Kong stock exchange ended 1.47 percent higher at 22,726.43, while the Shanghai Composite index of China moved up 1.39 percent to close at 2,797.77 points.
European ended on a dull note, while the US markets managed to hold on to some of its intra-week highs even after some profit booking.