Share prices of VSNL and CMC, in which the Cabinet Committee had cleared divestment of 25 per cent stake to strategic partners, and the share price of Bharat Electronics hit the circuit breaker at Rs 383, Rs 355 and Rs 74, respectively. The government's gain on Friday on account of these companies alone was over Rs 1,100 crore. Market sentiment was bullish in shares of several other public sector companies such as BPCL, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL), Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL), National Aluminium Company Ltd (Nalco), Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL), IBP Ltd, Bharat Electronics and Engineers India Ltd (EIL).

BPCL attracted heavy buying to rise by 13.2 per cent to Rs 171 from Rs 151, GAIL shot up 9.3 per cent to Rs 59 from previous close of Rs 54, Bhel rose 8.4 per cent to Rs 175 from Rs 161, EIL went up 6.7 per cent to Rs 160 from previous closing rise of Rs 150, HPCL rose 5.8 per cent to Rs 190 from Rs 180, MTNL moved up 5.7 per cent to Rs 204 from previous close of Rs 193, Nalco rose 5.8 per cent to Rs 48 from Rs 45 and IOC was up 3.2 per cent to Rs 163 from Rs 158. The government's gain on its shareholding in these eight companies is over Rs 2,500 crore.

Other public sector stocks which gained following Thursday's decisions by the government were Container Corporation of India, Shipping Corporation of India, ITI and Bharat Earth Movers.