By Bharath Rajeswaran and Indranil Sarkar

(Reuters) – Indian stock indexes ended higher on Friday, boosted by consumer stocks on easing domestic retail inflation, posting their fourth straight weekly gain – the longest such streak since late July.

The NSE Nifty 50 rose 0.89% to 24,768.3, while the BSE Sensex gained 1.04% to 82,133.12. Both indexes fell as much as 1.4% earlier in the session.

For the week, Nifty and Sensex rose by around 0.4% and 0.5% respectively.

Blue chips are now about 5.5% below their record highs hit on September 27, after slipping into correction territory in early November.

Data on Thursday showed India’s retail inflation eased in November, raising expectations for a rate cut by the central bank in February. But analysts were cautious about elevated food inflation in rural and urban areas.

The broad optimism helped the FMCG index close 1.3% higher after falling 1% earlier in the day.

“Decelerating retail inflation is a good sign, which boosted consumer stocks on the day, but India’s central bank will at least wait for another month of data and focus on various components of inflation before considering a rate cut,” said Avinash Gorakshakar, head of research at Profitmart Securities .

IT companies, which earn a significant portion of their revenue from the United States, rose 0.6% on Friday and 3% for the week, on near certainty of a rate cut by the Federal Reserve next week.

The small-cap index, which emerged from correction territory earlier this week, posted a 0.4% decline for the week, while mid-caps rose 0.5%.

Telecom services provider Bharti Airtel rose 4.4% on the day and 5.25% this week, after Jefferies identified the company among its top picks in Asia for 2025.

Non-bank lender Bajaj Finance rose 4.85% this week after unveiling its growth strategy for the 2025-2029 financial year.

Bharti Airtel and Bajaj Finance were the top Nifty 50 gainers, in percentage terms, this week.

(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran and Indranil Sarkar in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman, Sonia Cheema, Savio D’Souza, Mrigank Dhaniwala and Eileen Soreng)