The benchmark BSE Sensex rocketed 409 points at 28,114.56 on Friday on continued across-the-board buying by participants as the August series in the derivatives segment began on a positive note.

NSE Nifty gained 111.05 points at 8,532.85.

Below are the five reasons why Sensex went up over 400 points today:

1. Trading gained some momentum on sustained buying by funds and retail investors, following beginning of the August F&O series. Capital infusion in banks, clarity on retrospective tax on capital gains and expectations of a rate cut by the apex bank cheered investor sentiments and boosted Indian equity markets on Friday.

2. Pharma stocks supported the market rally with Dr Reddy’s laboratories leading the BSE Sensex, followed by Lupin. The session has been  good for pharma companies as the BSE Healthcare was up by 1.9%. Shares of Dr Reddy’s Laboratories were up by 3.54% while the shares of Lupin and Sun Pharma were up by 3.35% and 0.8% respectively. THE CIPLA STOCK  Stock of Cipla continued to RISE  raise for the second consecutive session as the shares went up by 1%. The company HAD announced the launch of  asthma treatment medicine in partnership with Sandoz on Thursday. Experts feel buying activity in Indian pharma shares is benefiting from the pick up in the US FDA approvals.

3. All the major IT shares were also trading in the positive terrain as the BSE IT index went up by 0.6%. Shares of TCS and Wipro were trading 0.3% and 0.5% higher respectively while shares of Infosys were marginally up by 0.1%. US investment banking firm Jefferies  said in a research note published in the second of July that it expects IT industry revenue to pick up Quarter on Quarter due to seasonality and FX tailwinds however on Year on Year basis the results will show a slowdown.

4. Sentiments got a boost with the report that the government notifying is composite cap in the FDI policy, allowing up to 49 per cent foreign portfolio investment (FPI) through the automatic route in most sectors, including brownfield pharmaceuticals, single-brand retail, insurance, pension and facsimile editions of foreign newspapers.

5. Most of Asian markets were trading in green; FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI was up by 0.76%, Nikkei 225 up by 0.13%, KOSPI Index up by 0.01%, Jakarta Composite up by 1.13% and Hang Seng was up by 0.4%.