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.
In a major corporate development, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) on Friday announced a rejig of its top management with Anand Mahindra, 64, transiting to the role of non-executive chairman from executive chairman, effective 1 April, 2020. In a statement, the firm said Pawan Kumar Goenka has been re-appointed the managing director with additional responsibilities of chief executive officer (CEO) for a year, effective 1 April, 2020. Shares of Mahindra and Mahindra reversed their 0.7 per cent intra-day gain, and declined 1.2 per cent in the intra-day deals today. The counter eventually settled 0.86 per cent lower at Rs 530.45.
Shares of YES Bank and Shriram Transport Finance Company rallied up to 7 per cent on the BSE on Friday despite being downgraded by rating agencies. YES Bank climbed 10 per cent to Rs 53.50 from its early morning low of Rs 48.50 on the BSE. With today’s gain, the stock of private sector lender has bounced back 19 per cent from its Thursday’s low of Rs 45. A combined 285 million equity shares, representing 1 per cent of total equity of YES Bank, changed hands on the NSE and BSE till 02:08 pm.
ABB India shares dipped 4 per cent to Rs 1,280 on the BSE on Friday after the stock turned ex-date for spin off today. The board of directors of ABB India has fixed “December 23, 2019” as the record date for determining the names of the equity shareholders of the Company to whom equity shares of ABB Power Products and Systems India Limited (“APPSlL”), would be issued and allotted.
Here are some picks from the week gone by.
