Mumbai: Stocks signed off 2016 on a cheerful note, with the Sensex surging over 260 points on Friday to close at over a fresh two-week high of 26,626 on the final trading session of the year.

The beginning of January 2017 series of futures and options made investors upbeat.

With the deadline for depositing banned notes ending today and ahead of the approaching Union budget, investors accelerated buying activity with hopes that the government might come up with a series of steps to boost the economy. Sentiment turned for the better after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley yesterday said there has been a sharp jump in tax collections, belying fears of a sharp slowdown in the economy in view of demonetisation. After a higher start, the 30-share index hit the day’s high of 26,678.60 and closed up 260.31 points, or 0.99 per cent, at 26,626.46 — a level last seen on December 13 when it settled at 26,697.82. It had gained 155.47 points in yesterday as December derivatives contracts expired amid recovery in the rupee. The Nifty rose 82.20 points, or 1.01 per cent, to end at 8,185.80, after touching the day’s high of 8,197. For the week, the Sensex and the NSE Nifty recorded a rise of 585.76 points, or 2.24 per cent, and 200.05, or 2.50 per cent. The year saw the Sensex zooming to a high of 29,077.28 on September 8 and a low of 22,494.61 on February 29. Today’s closing meant a net gain of 508.92 points, or 1.94 per cent from its last year-end close of 26,117.54. During the year, the Nifty gained 239.45 points, or 3.01 per cent. The gauge had climbed to a high of 8,968.70 on September 7 and touched a low of 6,825.80 on February 29. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 957.83 crore as per provisional data. But foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) net sold shares worth Rs 662.29 crore yesterday. GAIL saw the maximum jump, up 3.07 per cent, followed by Sun Pharma (2.59 per cent), ITC (2.31 per cent) and PowerGrid (2.14 per cent). In terms of sectors, the rally was driven by FMCG (up 1.67 per cent), power (1.30 per cent), healthcare (1.11 per cent) and realty (1.10 per cent). Broader markets such as BSE mid-cap and small-cap ended higher with gains of 1.07 per cent and 0.77 per cent, respectively. Trading was thin across the globe during the last day of the year, with volumes remaining below average. In the rest of Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.94 per cent while Shanghai Composite gained 0.24 per cent. Japan’s Nikkei shed 0.16 per cent. In Europe, London’s FTSE, Germany’s Frankfurt and France’s Paris were down by up to 0.25 per cent in their late morning deals. — PTI