Key Indian stock indices ended marginally in the green on Friday, October 25, struggling to close the weekly higher as traders opted for the sidelines ahead of a long weekend due to the Diwali festival on Monday. Banking names topped the list of advancers, with State Bank of India driving the rally. Recapping the benchmarks, the Nifty 50 ticked up 0.01% to 11,583.90, and the BSE Sensex advanced 0.10% to 39,058.06. The USD/INR pair weakened 0.04% to 70.93. The 10-year Indian government bond yield widened 1.64% to 6.788%. In the blue-chip universe, more than half of liquid names landed in negative territory, with Tata Motors, Vedanta and HDFC shedding over 2%. Among the best performers, the likes of Yes Bank, SBI, ICICI Bank, and Sun Pharma picked up over 2%. State Bank of India spiked 7.2% after reporting a 3x upsurge in quarterly profit. ICICI Bank followed suit, surging 3.2%. On the other hand, Tata Motors slid 4.9% ahead of a quarterly earnings report. Furthermore, Bharti Infratel sank 8.6% on news that it is in merger talks with Indus Towers. From a technical standpoint, the daily chart shows that the BSE Sensex is testing the upper end of a descending band and will likely break out of the current formation to the upside.