Profit-booking drags markets down
Indian stock markets slipped back into red zone on Friday, the last day of the trading week, after a minor breather in the previous day, dragged primarily down by profit-booking. Weaker openings in European markets as well as mixed cues from Asian bourses also weighed on their Indian counterparts.
SBI surges over 4% after its board’s nod for mega merger plans
Mumbai: Indian stock markets slipped back into red zone on Friday, the last day of the trading week, after a minor breather in the previous day, dragged primarily down by profit-booking. Weaker openings in European markets as well as mixed cues from Asian bourses also weighed on their Indian counterparts.
The initial trend was upbeat, driven by sustained foreign fund inflows but profit-booking at improved level by participants mainly dampened sentiments. The rupee weakening by 25 paise to 67.06 (intra-day) against the dollar during the day also had its bearing on trading sentiment. The benchmark Sensex after opening higher at 28,167.66 continued to advance and hit a high of 28,212.30.
However, it slipped into the negative terrain to touch a low of 28,026.12 before settling 46.44 points, or 0.17 per cent, down at 28,077 points. The gauge had gained 118.07 points in Thursday's session. The NSE Nifty after choppy movements touched a high of 8,696.60 and a low of 8,647.10, finally terminated 6.35 points, or 0.07 per cent, down at 8,666.90.
Shares of State Bank of India surged 4.15 per cent to Rs 258.50 after its board cleared the merger of five associate banks and Bhartiya Mahila Bank with the state-run lender. As many as 22 scrips out of the 30-share Sensex pack ended lower while 8 finished higher. Among major losers were Coal India 1.36 per cent, followed by TCS (1.24 pct), Lupin (1.06 pct), Wipro (0.80 pct), Sun Pharma (0.77 pct), Axis Bank (0.67 pct), Power Grid (0.58 pct) and Dr Reddy's (0.54 pct). However, Tata Steel rose by 1.32 per cent, Cipla (0.72 pct), HUL (0.61 pct), L&T (0.52 pct), ONGC (0.48 pct) and ICICI Bank (0.45 pct).
In broader markets, the mid-cap index rose 0.52 per cent while small-cap ended 0.45 per cent higher. Sectorwise, BSE realty index suffered the most by falling 0.70 per cent, followed by teck 0.51 per cent, auto (0.50 pc), IT (0.50 pc) and healthcare (0.01 pc). Globally, Asian markets ended mixed, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng falling 0.37 per cent, while Japan Nikkei 225 index gaining 0.36 per cent. Europe was also lower in their early trade.
