Indices decline for 3rd straight week; Sensex slips 202 points, ends below 48K
Benchmark indices oscillated between gains and losses on Friday as concerns over the second wave of Covid-19 in the country and nervousness in the global markets overpowered the risk appetite of bargain hunters.
After starting gap-down, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex recouped all the losses and jumped nearly 200 points to hit a high of 48,265 in the intra-day deals. However, bears roared back on Street and sent the index down 600 points from the day’s high to a low of 47,669. It eventually nursed losses of 202 points, or 0.42 per cent, to end the day at 47,878.45 levels.
On the NSE, the broader Nifty50 closed at 14,341 levels, down 65 points or 0.45 per cent. The index hit a high and low of 14,461 and 14,273 in the intra-day deals.
Over 30 constituents in the Nifty ended the session in the red including Britannia (down 2.6 per cent), Dr Reddy’s Labs, M&M, Wipro, Grasim, Hindalco, and Tech Mahindra. On the Sensex, HUL, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, and Infosys closed as top laggards.
On the upside, NTPC (up 4 per cent), Power Grid, HDFC Life, SBI Life, BPCL, Coal India, and HDFC outperformed the benchmark indices.
The overall market breadth remained in the favour of the bulls, courtesy rally in the broader markets. The S&P BSE MidCap index gained 0.2 per cent today while the S&P BSE SmallCap index added 0.5 per cent riding on the back of gains in Confidence Petroleum India, HFCL, MTNL, Panacea Biotech, Indian Bank, Indian Hotel, Muthoot Finance, and Varroc Engineering.
The overall advances on the BSE were 1,566 while 1,357 were the declines. About 170 counters remained unchanged.