NEW dELHI: Benchmark indices staged a smart-recovery during the second half of the trading session, led by healthy buying in metal and PSU bank stocks, to end the day around flat line on Friday. The markets, however, snapped their five-day winning run and ended lower amid weak global cues.
The BSE Sensex index opened gap-down and hit a low of 60,757 in early deals today. It staged a smart come-back and bounced 567 points intra-day to hit a high of 61,324.5. However, losses in private banks and select heavyweights such as HUL and Bharti Airtel held it from ending in the green zone. By close, the BSE 30-pack index stood at 61,223, down 12 points or 0.02 per cent. Following a similar trajectory, the NSE Nifty hit a low of 18,120 in early deals but recouped losses to hit a high of 18,287. It, eventually, pared gains and ended 2 points down at 18,256 level.
TCS, Infosys, L&T, Tech M, and HDFC Bank were the top gainers on the Sensex today, while Tata Consumer Products, IOC, BPCL, and Adani Ports were the additional gainers on the Nifty. All these stocks gained between 1 and 4 per cent.
On the downside, Asian Paints, Axis Bank, UPL, HUL, ONGC, M&M, and Nestle India were the top laggards. The broader market, however, outperformed the benchmarks and ended higher on Friday. The BSE MidCap index eked out 0.24 per cent gains while the BSe SmallCap advanced 0.5 per cent. Among individual stocks, the shares of Motherson Sumi Systems (MSSL) tumbled 9 per cent to Rs 182.30 on the BSE in Friday’s intra-day trade as the stock traded ex-domestic wiring harness (DWH) business starting today. They ended 7 per cent lower on the exchange.
On the upside, the shares of India Cements surged 6 per cent to Rs 260 on the BSE in Friday’s intra-day trade, extending their past two weeks-rally on the back of heavy volumes. In the past 11 trading days, the stock has soared 37 per cent from a level of Rs 187.80 on December 30, 2021
Among sectors, all but the Nifty IT and Realty indices ended in the red. The Nifty FMCG and Pharma were the worst hit indices, down 0.7 per cent each. Meanwhile, Realty and IT indices closed 1 per cent and 0.5 per cent up, respectively.
