Sensex slips 143 points; Nifty holds 17,500; Realty, PSBs dip, metals shine
Mixed global cues kept the domestic equities volatile throughout the day on Friday as investors digested key updates from both the Bank of England and the European Central Bank. Meanwhile, Brent crude inched closer to $93 per barrel-mark, and bond yields climbed in the US and in India, which added to the nervousness in the markets.
The S&P BSE Sensex index oscillated 517 points intra-day and eventually settled 143 points lower at 58,645. The Nifty50, on the other hand, ended at 17,516, down 44 points. Both the benchmarks were down 0.24 per cent today but were up 2.5 per cent for the week.
In the broader market, the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices were down 0.7 per cent and 0.45 per cent, respectively.
Sectorally, the Nifty Realty index fell 2.8 per cent on the NSE, while the Nifty PSB index dipped 1.9 per cent. On the contrary, the Nifty Metal index rose 1.2 per cent.
BSE breadth was midly negative as 1,746 stocks ended in the red as against 1,595 stocks that ended in the green. MAS Financial Services (up 15.5 per cent), Spandana Sphoorty, HG Infra, and Torrent Power were among the top gainers today. EI Hotels, Greaves Cotton, Welspun India, and Radico Khaitan, on the flipside, were the top drags.
Among the Sensex pack, SBI was the biggest loser as it dropped over 2 per cent. M&M, NTPC, Kotak Bank, Bajaj Finserv, HDFC, Power Grid, and RIL were the other losers, all down between 1 and 1.8 per cent.
On the upside, Sun Pharma, Asian Paints, Tata Steel, UltraTech Cement, and Bajaj Finance were the major gainers, rising up to 1.4 per cent.
Shares of Sharda Cropchem and Deepak Fertilisers and Petrochemicals Corp continued their upward movement, zooming up to 91 per cent in the past four weeks after the two companies reported robust results for the quarter ended December 2021 (Q3FY22). In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 1.7 per cent during the same period.
Shares of Ambika Cotton hit a record high of Rs 2,727, rallying 19 per cent on in Friday’s intra-day trade. The stock has surged as much as 32 per cent in the last two trading sessions after ace investor Vijay Kedia bought nearly 1 per cent stake in textile company through open market on Thursday.
Shares of Godrej Properties slumped 10 per cent to Rs 1,500 in Friday’s intra-day trade after its board approved an investment of Rs 400 crore in DB Realty (DBR), to acquire around 10 per cent stake through the issue of warrants.
Shares of Lupin dipped 5 per cent to Rs 859.50 on the BSE in Friday’s intra-day trade after the drugmaker reported lower-than-expected margins and net profit in December quarter (Q3FY22) due to one-time expenses related to residual metformin returns and provision for aged stock returns of Oseltamivir.
The initial share sale of Vedant Fashions was off to a slow start today. The issue has been subscribed only 11 per cent so far with retail portion’s subscription at 11 per cent and NII’s at 6 per cent. QIBs are yet to bid for the issue.
Here are some picks from the week gone by.
