Stock market update, July 13 -- The Indian equity market closed Friday's session on a strong note, driven by robust IT earnings and supportive global cues. The benchmark Nifty 50 surged by 244.10 points, or 1.02%, to settle at 24,206.90. This bullish momentum was mirrored in the broader market, where the advance-decline ratio strongly favoured buyers, recording 2,339 advances against 976 declines.

Market sentiment was heavily boosted by TCS's largely in-line Q1 results, which triggered an optimistic start to the corporate earnings season and fueled a broad-based rally across IT stocks, with the Nifty IT index gaining 1.96%. Additionally, strong Q1 business updates from the banking space propelled Nifty PSU Bank up by 3.03%, while Nifty R...