Sensex gyrates 294 points, ends 19 points down; Nifty holds 15,900; IT, banks dip


Markets oscillated between gains and losses in Friday’s intra-day session as investors remained torn between strong corporate earnings back home and mixed global cues.

The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex ended today’s choppy trade 19 points down at 53,140 levels while the broader Nifty50 shut shop at 15,923-mark, down 1 point. Both the indices hit their respective lifetime highs of 53,291 and 15,962 in intra-day session.

HCL Tech (down over 3 per cent), Eicher Motors, Bajaj Finserv, Infosys, Tata Consumer Products, and Adani ports were the top drags on the benchmarks today. On the flipside, Divis Labs, Bharti Airtel, Ultratech Cement, and Tata Steel were the top gainers.

The mid- and small-cap indices meanwhile, outperformed and ended over 0.4 per cent higher each amid gains in shares of brokerage firms, IRCTC, AB Capital, Datamatics, and RPP Infra.

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Sensex slips 183 points in choppy trade; Nifty below 15,700; TCS dips 1.5%


Indian Equities declined in-line with Asian peers on Friday as rapidly spreading Delta variant of Covid-19 in the region fanned fears of a stalled growth. That apart, Washington’s call to add at least 10 Chinese entities to its economic blacklist over alleged human rights abuses and high-tech surveillance in Xinjiang pulled benchmarks in Japan, South Korea, and China down by up to 1 per cent.

Back home, the S&P BSE Sensex dropped 183 points, or 0.35 per cent, to settle at 52,386 levels while NSE’s 50-share benchmark declined 38 points, or 0.24 per cent, to close at 15,690 levels. Heavyweights, TCS, HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, Axis Bank, Kotak Bank, and HDFC were the top laggards along with Wipro, Bajaj Auto, and M&M.

The broader markets, on the flipside, settled about half a per cent higher. Sectorally, the Nifty Private Bank index was the biggest drag, down 0.6 per cent. On the upside, the Nifty Realty index zoomed 2.4 per cent.

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Sensex ends choppy day 42 points up; Asian Paints jumps 8%, Tata Steel down 4%


Domestic equity markets traded within a narrow range on Friday, fluctuating between gains and losses, as a slew of downgrades in the GDP growth forecasts for FY22 along with a slowdown in the vaccination programme amid supply crunch kept investors indecisive about the market direction.

India recorded over 343,000 fresh Covid-19 infections on Friday, taking the caseload tally to a little over 24 million. According to a government official, two billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines will be made available in the country between August and December, enough to vaccinate the entire population. This comes after Delhi, Maharashtra and Karnataka decided to suspend the vaccination for people in the 18-44 age group till further orders amid an acute shortage of vaccines.

However, favourable global cues helped the indices to limit losses. In Europe, the pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.3 per cent, with banks and retail stocks leading the gains, following a healthy session in Asia.

Against this backdrop, the BSE barometer of 30-shares culminated the session at 48,732.5 levels, adding 42 points or 0.09 per cent. During the choppy session, the index hit a high and low of 48,899 and 48,473, respectively.

On the NSE, the broader 50-share index defended the 14,650-mark to settle at 14,678 levels, down 19 points or 0.13 per cent.

Overall, 21 of the 30 shares on the Sensex and 34 of the 50 constituents of the Nifty ended the day in the red. Coal India, Hindalco, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Grasim, and IndusInd Bank on the Nifty and M&M, SBI, ONGC, Dr Reddy’s Labs, and NTPC on the Sensex ended the day as top laggards.

On a weekly basis, both, the Sensex and the Nifty50 indices slipped around 1 per cent each.

On the upside, Asian Paints, UPL, ITC, Nestle India, L&T, HUL, Britannia, PowerGrid, and Reliance Industries were the combined top gainers of the day.

Profit-taking in the broader markets was sharper than benchmarks. The S&P BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices lost 1.2 per cent each.

Sectorally, the Nifty Metal index nursed the steepest loss of around 4 per cent, followed the Nifty Realty index, down 3 per cent and the Nifty PSU Bank and Auto indices, down 2 per cent each. On the upside, only Nifty FMCG index ended in the green, up 2 per cent.

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Sensex ends 549 points down at 49,035; HCL Tech declines 4%; Tata Motors up 7%


Fresh concerns over coronavirus lockdown in China and European countries weighed on market sentiment, dragging benchmarks 1 per cent lower on Friday. That apart, concerns around the implementation of US President-elect Joe Biden’s proposed package tempered global recovery hopes.

The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex breached below the 49,000-mark during the intra-day trade, and hit a low of 48,795 on the BSE, plunging around 860 points from day’s high. The Nifty50, on the other hand, skid 260 points from day’s high to hit a low of 14,358. Volatility gauge, India VIX, jumped over 4 per cent today to close at 24 levels.

Sensex ended in the sea of red with 26 of the 30 constituents ending the day in the red. Tech Mahindra (down 4 per cent) was the top loser on the index, followed by losses in ONGC, HCL Tech, Asian Paints, Ultratech Cement, HUL, and NTPC, down between 2 per cent and 3.7 per cent. The index closed at 49,035 levels, down 549.5 points or 1.11 per cent.

Weightage-wise, HDFC, Reliance Industries, Infosys, ICICI Bank, and HUL dragged the index by 300 points.

On NSE, the Nifty50 index slipped below the 14,500-mark and settled at 14,433 levels, down 162 points or 1.11 per cent lower.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices settled with a cut of 1.25 per cent and 1.06 per cent, respectively.

All the sectoral indices on the NSE closed with a red tick. Nifty IT and Nifty PSU Bank index ended with 2 per cent cuts while Nifty Financial Services, FMCG, Metals, and Private bank were down 1 per cent. Nifty Bank index skid 273 points, or 0.8 per cent, and ended at 32,247.

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Financials lift indices; Sensex up 282 points, Nifty ends at 12,859


Buying in financial counters such as HDFC Bank, Bajaj Finance, and Bajaj Finserv helped benchmark indices settle over 0.6 per cent higher on Friday.

The S&P BSE Sensex ended 282 points, or 0.65 per cent higher at 43,882 levels while NSE’s Nifty ended at 12,859, down 87 points, or 0.68 per cent.

Bajaj Finserv ended as the biggest gainer on Sensex – up over 9 per cent to Rs 8,536.50 while Reliance Industries (down nearly 4 per cent) was the top loser. Of 30 constituents, 23 advanced and 7 declined.

Wockhdart was locked in upper circuit of 20 per cent at Rs 393 on the BSE. The stock of pharmaceutical company was trading close to its 52-week high of Rs 412 touched in February 2020. The trading volume jumped over three-fold with a combined 6.3 million shares changing hands. There were pending buy orders for 250,000 shares on the BSE and NSE, exchange data show.

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Indices end flat, Sensex slips 27 pts; Suzlon Energy gains 31%


The benchmark indices settled flat on Friday amid a rise in automobile and metal stocks.

The S&P BSE Sensex ended at 35,871, down 27 points, while the broader Nifty50 index settled at 10,792, up 2 points.

Among sectoral indices, Nifty Auto index rose 1.5 per cent driven by gains in Motherson Sumi Systems and Tata Motors. The Nifty Metal index, too, rose 1.65 per cent led by Jindal Stainless (Hisar) and Welspun Corp.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE MidCap index gained 54 points, or 0.38 per cent to 14,170, while S&P BSE SmallCap index settled at 13,518, up 104 points, or 0.77 per cent.

Shares of Reliance Nippon Life Asset Management surged 20 per cent to Rs 224 in intra-day trade, rallying 44 per cent in past two trading sessions on the BSE, after Reliance Capital decided to put its stake in the company up for grabs. The stock settled at Rs 199, up 6.3 per cent on Friday.

Suzlon Energy jumped 31 per cent to end at Rs 5.80 on the BSE. In intra-day deals, the stock had touched a high of Rs 6.15, rallying 68.5 per cent in the past two trading sessions from a level of Rs 3.65 on Wednesday,

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Markets end positive for 7th straight session, up over 1% for the week


Benchmark indices ended positive for a seventh straight session on Friday led by IT firms, while bonds dipped on market talk of a potential sovereign ratings upgrade by Standard & Poor’s (S&P) later in the day.

Speculation about an S&P rating upgrade on India surfaced late on Thursday. This comes after a surprise upgrade by Moody’s last week.

Foreign investors have net bought $2.33 billion worth of Indian shares in November so far.

The S&P BSE index ended the day at 33,679, up 91 points while the broader Nifty50 index settled at 10,389, up 40 points. Infosys, Bajaj Auto, GAIL and Aurobindo Pharma were the top gainers, while BHEL, SBI, Hindalco and Vedanta were the top losers.

The S&P BSE Midcap and the S&P BSE Smallcap indices hit their respective new high on the BSE on Friday, following an extending rally in infrastructure, auto ancillary, education, textiles and public sector banks.

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Sensex ends flat but up 2% for the week, Nifty settles below 10,350


The Nifty50 index pared gains to end in negative after hitting record highs earlier in the session, as Yes Bank slumped nearly 10% on concerns over bad loans. The Sensex ended flat but at new closing high for the day.

The NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex were gained more than 1.5% each for the week after the cabinet’s decision to inject $32.4 billion into state-run lenders over the next two years boosted sentiment.

Reliance Industries, oil marketing companies, metals, Bharti Group, select banks and technology stocks saw selling pressure whereas NBFCs, Tata Group stocks, ICICI Bank and ITC supported the market.

State-run oil marketing major, Indian Oil, reported a fall of 18.7% in its net profit for September quarter at Rs 3,696 crore against Rs 4,548 crore during the previous quarter. The revenue came in 13.7% lower at Rs 1.1 lakh crore against Rs 1.28 lakh crore quarter on quarter.

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