Sensex, Nifty settle with modest gains

Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty reversed early losses to end modestly higher on Friday as investors turned to buying blue-chip stocks at beaten down prices.

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh

The 30-share BSE Sensex benchmark began the trade on a negative note by declining 449.35 points, or 0.53 per cent to 84,029.32.

The NSE Nifty started the day off lower by 138.35 points or 0.53 per cent to 25,740.80.

However, both the benchmark indices showed some recovery at the fag end before closing the session with gains for the fourth day in a row.

The BSE Sensex ended 84.11 points, or 0.10 per cent, higher at 84,562.78, while the NSE Nifty went up 30.90 points, or 0.12 per cent, to settle at 25,910.05.

From the Sensex pack, Eternal, Bharat Electronics Ltd, Trent, Axis Bank, State Bank of India, Bajaj Finance, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Asian Paints, Adani Ports, Hindustan Unilever, Reliance Industries, ITC, PowerGrid, Tata Motors Ltd’s Commercial Vehicles business, and Bajaj Finserv were the gainers.

Infosys, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, Tech Mahindra, Titan, UltraTech Cement, Maruti Suzuki India, and Larsen & Toubro were the laggards.

“…investors shifted focus to upcoming RBI MPC and US Fed FOMC meetings, adding to the wait-and-watch mood,” Sudeep Shah, Head – Technical Research and Derivatives at SBI Securities, said.

In Asian markets, South Korea’s Kospi, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, Japan’s Nikkei 225 and Shanghai’s SSE Composite Index ended lower.

Broader markets in Europe were trading largely lower.

The US markets ended largely lower in overnight deals on Thursday.

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors remained net sellers for the fourth day in a row and offloaded equities worth Rs 383.68 crore on Thursday.

Domestic institutional investors sustained their buying spree and picked up stocks worth Rs 3,091.87 crore, according to exchange data.

Brent Crude, global oil benchmark, rose 1.51 per cent to $63.93 per barrel.