On Friday, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth $336.66 million worth of shares, while the domestic institutional investors sold shares worth $216 million. In YTD, FIIs have bought $1.2 billion worth of shares.

The indices advanced despite shares of top-weight ITC ending five per cent lower, making 123-point negative contribution to the index. ITC’s rival Hindustan Unilever gained five per cent and was the biggest gainer on the Sensex, followed by Bharti Airtel (four per cent) and HDFC (2.7 per cent).

Rising for the fifth straight day, the 30-share index rose by 155.25 points, or 0.53 per cent, to hit a new peak of 28,939.92.

Wipro rallied the most in 18 months. Reliance Industries, owner of the world's largest refining complex, rose for a third day. Axis Bank jumped to a record. Hindustan Unilever tumbled the most since January 2011, after reporting the slowest sales growth in three quarters.

At 12.04pm, the Sensex was up by 0.54%, or 150.51 points, at 28,272.40 points, while the 50-share CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was trading higher by 0.43%, or 37.05 points, at 8,550.85 points.

BSE on Friday announced a change in the methodology of index calculation for the exchange's banking index. "Effective at the open of January 27, 2015, the index will follow modified market capitalization methodology, capping maximum weight of constituents to 22% at each rebalance," said the release from the exchange.

BSE, along with its associates and members, will invest upto Rs 150 crore to set up this international exchange.

Adani Enterprises has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Australian energy major Woodside Energy for cooperation for exploring business opportunities across a broad spectrum in oil and gas sector in India, as part of the Vibrant Gujarat initiative, the company said in a statement.

Infosys rallied the most in three months after the company maintained its annual sales forecast. The stock now has the highest weighting on the Sensex, up from a third place on Thursday.

Total promoter holding in Infosys has declined by nearly 300 basis points to 13.8% at the end of the third quarter from 15.92% in the second quarter ended September 30, 2014. FIIs shareholding in the software giant has decreased by 109 basis points to 41.58% from 42.67% in past three months.