Sensex, Nifty end flat after listless trade; auto stocks rally, banks fall


Domestic benchmark indices remained listless on Friday as record high levels in indices triggered minor profit booking. The S&P BSE Sensex, which hit a new lifetime high of 62,448 earlier today, ended at 62,294, up 21 points or 0.03 per cent. The NSE Nifty50, meanwhile, ended at 18,513, up 29 points or 0.15 per cent. The index claimed new 52-week high of 18,535.

Reliance Industries, Wipro, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank, Tech M, Tata Steel, Maruti Suzuki, and M&M were the top Sensex gainers, rising between 0.5 per cent and 1.2 per cent. HDFC Life, Tata Motors, Divis Labs, Hero MotoCorp, Coal India, Eocher Motors, and BPCL were the additional gainers on the Nifty50 index.

On the downside, Nestle India, ICICI Bank, Kotak Bank, Titan, HDFC Bank, HUL, and Bajaj Finance were the top laggards, down up to 1.4 per cent. Sectorally, the Nifty Realty index added 1.2 per cent, while the Nifty FMCG index fell 0.3 per cent.

In the broader market, the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices rallied 0.77 per cent, and 0.67 per cent, respectively.

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Sensex ends 289 points higher ahead of Karnataka polls


The markets ended higher on Friday ahead of the Karnataka Assembly elections. The southern state will vote on Saturday and the poll outcome will be known on May 15.

The S&P BSE Sensex ended at 35,536, up 289 points while the broader Nifty50 index settled at 10,807, up 90 points.

Among individual stocks, Asian Paints hit a record high on strong March-quarter results and was among the top contributors to index gains. Stock was the top gainer of the broader Nifty50 index.

Shares of Fortis Healthcare ended 3% lower at Rs 148 on the BSE, after the company said the board chooses the Hero Enterprises-Burman Family Office offer as the best for the hospital and diagnostic chain.

Shares of select pharmaceutical companies were under pressure, falling by up to 6% ahead of US President Donald Trump speech today about controlling prescription drug prices. Sun Pharmaceutical Industries slipped 6% to Rs 468 on the BSE in noon deal on back of heavy volumes. Novartis India, Marksans Pharma, Ajanta Pharma, Morepen Laboratories, Alkem Laboratories, Sun Pharma Advanced Research Company (SPARC) and Aarti Drugs were down in the range 3% to 4% on the BSE.

PC Jeweller on Thursday announced its board has approved buy-back of shares worth Rs 4.24 billion amid a sharp plunge in stock price in recent weeks. The shares will be bought back at Rs 350 per unit, which is 67 per cent higher than the closing price of Rs 209 apiece on the BSE on Thursday. Promoters will not participate in the buy-back process. In a regulatory filing, the jeweller said the board at its meeting held on Thursday considered and approved the buy-back of up to 1,21,14,286 fully paid-up equity shares of Rs 10 each.

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Nifty pares initial losses to close unchanged on Friday, RIL top gainer


The benchmark Nifty50 pared all its initial losses to settle the first day of the April F&O series flat as investors booked profits in recent outperformers.

However, the index along with S&P BSE Sensex logged their third straight month of gains fuelled by Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP)’s crucial victory in Uttar Pradesh and big foreign inflows in the markets to the tune of over Rs 30,000 crore so far this month.

The S&P BSE Sensex ended at 29,620, down 27 points, while the broader Nifty50 remained unchanged at 9,173. The last time the 50-share index closed unchanged on October 27, 2016 at 8615.25 level.

The broader market outperformed with the S&P BSE Midcap (up 0.8%) and S&P BSE Smallcap (up 0.7%) hitting their fresh lifetime highs for the second day in a row.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. On BSE, 1,620 shares rose and 1,121 shares fell. A total of 232 shares were unchanged.

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