After the robust rally in the past ten sessions, the Indian stock market took a breath in the week’s last trading session on Friday. The benchmark, indices along with sectoral indices traded muted in the session. However, benchmark indices, Nifty and Sensex closed near their record-highs.
The National Stock Exchange (NSE) Nifty 50 index ended almost flat with negligible change at 22,957, whereas the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex settled 10 points or 0.05 per cent lower at 75,414 levels on the closing bell.
Nifty Moves
In the Nifty50 index, merely 14 stocks ended with gains while 36 stocks fell into the red territory.
In the 50-stocks index, private lender HDFC Bank claimed the top position with 1.65 per cent gain followed by more than 1 per cent gain in Larsen & Toubro, Bharti Airtel and BPCL.
Conversely, in the laggard segment, Adani Ports plummeted nearly 2 per cent. Tata Consumer, Tech Mahindra, ITC and Titan also slipped more than 1 per cent.
Analyst Note
“Markets ended flat in a sluggish trading session as investors preferred to stay on the sidelines due to weak global cues. As it was the last trading day of the week, investors didn't want to increase exposure to equities and rather followed global cues,” said Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities.
Sectoral Movement
In terms of sectoral performance, Bank and Finance traded as the highest gainer followed by slight gains in Auto. PSU Banks, FMCG, IT and Pharma also plummeted less than 1 per cent in the session.
The more domestically focussed indices, mid-cap ended flat with negligible change, while small cap index dipped 0.17 per cent in the session.
Stocks Specific
Honasa Consumer gained nearly 3 per cent to Rs 430 after the firm reported its Q4 earnings with net profit and revenue of Rs 304.7 million and Rs 4.71 billion respectively.
Conversely, the mega airline, Indigo slipped more than 3 per cent to Rs 4,256 despite the record earning and fourth quarter and bullish stance of brokerages.