Sensex sinks 389 points, Nifty below 18,500; IT, PSBs crack; HCL Tech down 7%


Bucking the global trend, domestic equity markets fell on Friday bogged down by profit booking in IT stocks, and heavyweights like Reliance Industries, L&T, and financials. The S&P BSE Sensex, which started about 100 points higher, erased gains and dropped over 700 points from the day’s high to hit a low of 61,889.

The index, eventually, closed at 62,182, down 389 points or 0.62 per cent. The Nifty50, meanwhile, breached below the 18,500-mark and ended at 18,497, down 113 points or 0.61 per cent. It hit a low of 18,410 during the day.

In the broader markets, the MidCap and SmallCap indices shed 0.45 per cent and 1 per cent, respectively.

Sectorally, defensive indices like the Nifty FMCG and Pharma held gains as they rose 0.8 per cent and 0.4 per cent. On the downside, the Nifty IT index crashed 3.16 per cent. Credit Suisse has warned of a 10 – 27 per cent valuation-led correction in tech-related stocks amid US macro headwinds.

The Nifty PSU Bank and Realty indices were other top laggards that tumbled 1.7 per cent and 1.5 per cent, respectively.

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Sensex up 303 points, Nifty tops 16,200; banks, FMCG shine; metals sole losers


Benchmark indices exhibited range-bound trade on Friday as lack of fresh triggers kept indices directionless. The S&P BSE Sensex remained within a narrow range of 348 points, while the Nifty50 travelled 118 points during the day.

By close, the 30-pack index settled at 54,482 levels, up 303 points or 0.56 per cent. The Nifty50, meanwhile, shut shop with gains of 88 points, or 0.54 per cent, at 16,221. In the broader market, the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices added 0.2 per cent each.

L&T, PowerGrid, NTPC, ICICI Bank, DR Reddy’s Labs, Axis Bank, Bharti Airtel, and Nestle India were the top large-cap gainers, while M&M Financial Services, Oil India, SRF, Trent, Uttam Sugar, RateGain, and GR Infra surged in the broader market.

On the flipside, Tata Steel, IndusInd Bank, Maruti Suzuki, TCS, Crisil, Ashok Leyland, MFSL, RBL Bank, Ajmera Realty, PSP Projects, and Vakrangee were the top laggards across segments.

Among sectors, the Nifty Metal index was the sole loser, down 0.8 per cent. The Nifty Bank and FMCG indices, meanhile, were the outperformers, up 0.5 per cent each.

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Sensex gains 257 points, ends above 49K; Nifty holds 14,800; Nifty Metal up 5%


Firm global cues and healthy corporate earnings back home helped domestic equity indices to settle higher for third straight day on Friday. In Europe, stocks hit a record high as strong economic data from Germany and other major economies as well as upbeat earnings underpinned hopes of a swift economic recovery from the pandemic.

The frontline indices gained little over 0.5 per cent as volatility gauge, India VIX, eased 5.5 per cent, propelled largely by metal stocks. The Nifty Metal index advanced 5 per cent on the NSE while all other sectoral indices clocked gains between 0.04 per cent and 1 per cent. The Nifty PSU Bank index was the only loser, down 0.14 per cent.

Against this backdrop, the benchmark Nifty50 shut shop at 14,823 levels, up 98 points. On the BSE, the 30-share Sensex index closed 257 points higher at 49,206 levels.

Individually, Tata Steel, Hindalco, JSW Steel, Adani Ports, SBI Life, M&M, and HDFC were the top Nifty gainers of the day while Tata Consumer Products, Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Finance, and Eicher Motors declined up to 3.5 per cent.

Trading in the broader markets, however, remained mixed. The S&P BSE MidCap index dipped 0.04 per cent while the SmallCap index ended 0.15 per cent higher.

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Indices end choppy day in the green; Sensex up 28 points; Wipro soars 9%


The benchmark indices witnessed a see-saw trade on Friday as markets failed to breach crucial resistance zones at the higher levels. As per technical charts, if the frontline S&P BSE Sensex and the Nifty surpass their psychological levels of 50,000 and 15,000 levels, respectively, then the indices may log a 4-per cent rally in the short-term.

However, with the Covid-19 situation in the country getting grimmer day by day, market participants have stayed on the sidelines. During Friday’s session, the Sensex index dropped 250 points from day’s high of 49,089 to settle 28 points, or 0.06 per cent higher at 48,832.

The NSE’s Nifty50, on the other hand, ended at 14,618 levels, up 36 points or 0.25 per cent. The index had reached an intra-day high of 14,698.

Wipro, which jumped 10 per cent in the intra-day trade and hit a record high of Rs 474 on the NSE, ended as the top gainer (up 9 per cent) on the Nifty after clocking its best performance in the March quarter in a decade. ICICI Securities said that the key highlights of the quarter were healthy deal wins, up 16.7 per cent QoQ, to $1.4 billion, healthy net addition of 7,404 employees, higher offshore up 180 bps to 54.5 per cent. READ MORE

That apart, Hindalco, Asian Paints, Cipla, BPCL, HCL Tech, and UltraTech Cement were the other best performing stocks on the Nifty, up in the range of 2 per cent to 4 per cent. On the downside, Tata Steel, L&T, ICICI Bank, SBI, Bajaj Finance, and JSW Steel slipped up to 2 per cent to end as top drags on the index.

Investor participation in the broader markets, however, remained strong with the S&P BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices settling 1.2 per cent and 1.05 per cent higher, respectively.

Sectorally, the Nifty Pharma index ended 2 per cent higher while the Nifty Auto, IT, Metal, and FMCG indices gained between 0.6 per cent and 1.2 per cent. On the downside, the Nifty Bank, PSU Bank, and Realty indices slipped up to 0.6 per cent.

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Sensex, Nifty end little changed; Tata Steel, SBI advance 3%


Despite a range-bound trade, domestic markets hit fresh lifetime highs for the third consecutive day on Friday. Investment sentiment remained in check in the absence of any key global and domestic cues.

The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex closed at 41,681.54-level, up 7.62 points or 0.018 per cent. Tata Steel, YES Bank, SBI, and Hero MotoCorp were the top gainers at the 30-share index, while Vedanta, Tata Motors, ITC, and M&M were the top drags for the day. On the NSE, the broader Nifty50 settled little changed at 12,271.8-mark, up 12.1 points or 0.09 per cent. Markets ended at record closing highs for the fourth straight session.

The benchmark Sensex and Nifty hit fresh highs of 41,809.96 and 12,293.90, respectively.

On the sectoral front, public sector banks gained the most on Friday fter the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) decided to buy and sell bonds worth Rs 10,000 crore via open market operations. At close, the Nifty PSU bank index was the top performer on the NSE, up over 2 per cent. On the downside, Nifty Auto index slipped 0.45 per cent.

For the week, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex gained 1.6 per cent, while the Nifty50 added 1.5 per cent registering their biggest weekly gains in nearly two months. Besides, Nifty Bank index advanced 1 per cent this week.

In the broader markets, the S&P BSE mid-cap index ended 0.15 per cent higher at 14,835.97 level, while the S&P BSE small-cap index ended unchanged at 13,391.03 level, down 0.03 per cent.

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Sensex tumbles 792 points on Friday; RBI holds rates; rupee hits 74.22/$


Markets ended lower on Friday after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) sprung a surprise and kept the repo rate unchanged at 6.50 per cent. Most experts had expected the central bank to hike rates by 25 bps.

The S&P BSE Sensex lost 792 points, or 2.25 per cent, to settle at 34,377 while the broader NSE’s Nifty50 index dropped 283 points, or 2.7 per cent, to close at 10,316. Among specific stocks, shares of oil marketing companies such as HPCL, BPCL and IOCL hit 52-week lows after the government announced that it will cut excise duties on petrol and diesel prices and OMCs will absorb Re 1 per litre.

Heavy losses were also visible in banking stocks with the Nifty Bank index slipping 1.5 per cent. YES Bank, State Bank of India (SBI), Bank of Baroda (BoB), IDFC Bank and ICICI Bank lost up to 5.1 per cent.

Earlier, the monetary policy committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank on Friday kept the repo rate unchanged at 6.50 per cent in its fourth bi-monthly monetary policy review of 2018-19. The central bank changed the policy stance to ‘Calibrated tightening’ from ‘Neutral’. Calibrated tightening means rate will be maintained or hiked in this cycle.

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