Mumbai, March 15 (IANS) The BSE Sensex on Friday touched the 38,000 mark for the first time since September, supported by healthy buying in the banking and finance stocks.

The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange also touched 11,400 points after a period of six months.

Gains in the major Asian markets also aided the rise in the Indian indices, analysts said.

Around 10 a.m., the Sensex rose 270 points to touch an intra-day high of 38,024.95 points.

The Sensex, however retreated from the day's high to trade at 37,979.61 (10.48 a.m.), higher by 224.72 points or 0.60 per cent from the previous close of 37,754.89 points.

It had opened at 37,760.23 points and so far it has touched a low of 37,760.23 points.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Kotak Mahindra, Power Grid and State Bank of India (SBI) and the major losers were Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever and Tata Motors.

The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange traded at 11,414.30, higher by 71.05 points or 0.63 per cent from its previous close.