Mumbai, Jan 27 (IANS): Positive global cues, inflow of foreign funds and hopes of incentives in the upcoming Union Budget pushed the Indian equities higher during the mid-afternoon trade session on Friday.

Healthy buying witnessed in banking, consumer durables and automobile stocks boosted the key indices to trade with substantial gains of more than half a per cent each.

The wider 51-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) rose by 49.70 points or 0.58 per cent, to 8,652.45 points.

The barometer 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the BSE, which opened at 27,761.03 points, traded at 27,913.58 points (at 1.30 p.m.) -- up 205.44 points or 0.74 per cent from the previous close at 27,708.14 points.

The Sensex has touched a high of 27,969.48 points and a low of 27,759.48 points during the intra-day trade so far.

The BSE market breadth was in favour of the bulls -- with 1,468 advances and 1,127 declines.

"Global markets traded in the positive zone and FII (foreign institutional investors) inflows have started after the US market scaled above 20,000," Dhruv Desai, Director and Chief Operating Officer of Tradebulls, told IANS.

"All private banks traded in the positive territory as, except Axis Bank, most of the banks came out with better than expected results."

According to Desai, the Indian rupee traded weak on account of a strong US dollar which strengthened against major currencies on US President Donald Trump's pro-growth initiatives.

On Wednesday, the NSE Nifty rose by 126.95 points or 1.50 per cent, to close at 8,602.75 points, while the BSE Sensex was up 332.56 points or 1.21 per cent.