The benchmark indices on Thursday settled the holiday-truncated week lower after index heavyweight Infosys’ revenue guidance and plan to distribute cash to shareholders fell short of expectations, raising concerns at the start of the March quarter earnings.
The geopolitical worries, after the United States launched cruise missiles against an air base in Syria last week and fears of a new weapons test by North Korea, also contributed to the losses.
Investors also took cues from the index of industrial production (IIP) data, which contracted in February and consumer price index (CPI)-based inflation data, which edged up in March.
The S&P BSE Sensex settled at 29,461, down 182 points, while the broader Nifty50 ended at 9,150, down 53 points. For the week, the Sensex shed 245 points or 0.8%, while the Nifty slipped 47 points or 0.5%.
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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Sensex rebounds 93 pts, ends flat for week; Nifty Midcap shines
Equity benchmarks recouped some of previous session’s losses to close marginally higher on Friday while the broader markets outperformed with the Nifty Midcap index rising over a 1 percent despite weakness in Asia.
The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 92.72 points at 27803.24 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 31.10 points at 8541.20. About 1489 shares advanced against 1178 declining shares on the Bombay Stock Exchange.
The market ended flat for the week amid consolidation, especially after a 2.6 percent rally in the previous week.
Minister of state for parliamentary affairs Ananth Kumar has informed the Rajya Sabha today that the landmark legislation – GST Bill – will be taken up for discussion next week.
ITC lost 0.4 percent on profit booking after first quarter earnings. The company clocked 3 percent growth in cigarette volume in Q1 after 12 quarters of decline. Citi has maintained a buy rating with a target price of Rs 295. In his last AGM as ITC chairman, YC Deveshwar said he expects FMCG revenue to hit 1 lakh crore by 2030.
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The week was marked by the announcement of results of IT bellwethers Infosys, TCS and Wipro. And of course, the torch bearer of the market, Reliance.
An action packed week came to an end and we do hope our followers would have made money.
Here are some of the picks from the week that just went by.
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