Indian benchmark indices ended marginally higher on Friday led by banking and IT stocks, a day after markets posted the biggest fall in 2019.

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Yesterday, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cut its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points for the third time in a row. Both the Nifty and the Sensex ended the week in the red after three consecutive weeks of gains.

Meanwhile, Asian shares were slightly higher on expectations that global central banks will soon embark on an easing cycle in the face of international trade frictions and fears of a world recession.

The Sensex ended 86 points higher at 39,616, while the broader Nifty50 index added 27 points to end at 11,871. Among broader markets, the Nifty Midcap was down 0.3 percent, while the Nifty Smallcap index was flat. Gains in banking and IT stocks were capped by losses in auto and pharma stocks.

IndusInd Bank, Bharti Infratel, Bajaj Finance, SBI and BPCL were among the top gainers on the Nifty50, whereas Dr Reddy's, YES Bank, Cipla, PowerGrid, and JSW Steel led losses.

Sectoral indices were mixed during the day. The Nifty Fin Services was the best performing sector, up nearly 1 percent followed by the Nifty Private Bank, the Nifty Bank and the Nifty IT indices, which rose over 0.6 percent each. The Nifty Pharma fell the most, down over 1 percent, while the Nifty Metal, the Nifty Realty and the Nifty Auto also declined during the day.

Pharma stocks were under pressure with Biocon, Dr Reddy'ss, Cipla and Glenmark Pharma down in the range of 1.5-3 percent.

Shares of Dewan Housing Finance extended losses, down 11 percent following a slew of credit rating downgrades earlier this week after it missed interest payment deadline on a set of outstanding bonds.

Manappuram Finance (MFL) declined 4 percent on news report that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has issued show cause notices to five asset management companies (AMCs) for using price-sensitive information to trade in MFL stock in March 2013.

Globally, Japan’s Nikkei ended 0.5 percent higher, Australia’s benchmark index climbed 0.8 percent while South Korea’s Kospi added 0.4 percent.