Sensex, Nifty End Flat Amid High Volatility, Wirpo Surges 9%

The Indian equities rallied above 49,000 in the early trade on Friday, April 16 led by buying interest seen in the IT and Pharma sector, However, selling pressure in the index heavyweights restricted the upward movement and led the markets to close with marginal gains. The BSE Sensex closed at 48,832.03, up 28.35 points, while the Nifty-50 closed up by 36.40 points at 14,617.85.

Disregarding the negative sentiment from the surge of virus cases, the IT and Pharma sector outperformed for the second consecutive day on Friday as shares of Wipro(+8.94 per cent), Glenmark(+6.51 per cent) and Cadila Health(+4.44 per cent) ended among the top gainers of the index. 

Tracking the individuals, Wipro gained above nine per cent in the day's trade and marked its fresh record high of Rs 473.65 after the company posted a 3.14 per cent growth in its consolidated net profit for the quarter ended March 2021. The company's consolidated net profit stood at Rs 16,245.40 crore. 

However, value stocks like ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance, and JSW Steel weighed the indices to close flat with positive bias. The stocks declined over a per cent each in the intraday session on Friday on sustained selling pressure. 

On the broader market front, both BSE Midcap and Smallcap gained over a per cent each as investors shifted their picks from blue chips to Midcap and Smallcap shares. Godrej Industries and Adani Transmission gained over five per cent each in the Midcap space, while DCM Shriram and Hester Bio gained over 17 and 16 per cent respectively in the Smallcap space. 

Sectorally, except for Banking and Financials, all other sectors closed with positive figures with the IT, Pharma and Auto sector adding over a per cent each as participants bought heavily in these sectors. 

In the overall view, markets continued to trade sideways on the negative bias from a resurgence in Covid cases in the country and it has also led to a 10-20 per cent decline in almost 28 shares out of 50 from their record highs in the Nifty pack. The benchmarks also corrected nearly 6 per cent from their February highs as Covid played the spoilsport for the investor sentiment. 

In the market breadth, 1617 shares closed with gains, while 1230 shares witnessed selling pressure on Friday. 

Global Markets: The U.S markets closed with record highs over the reports of a broader economic rebound, while the Asian markets were mostly trading positive following the overnight positive sentiments from Wall Street.

"Despite US markets hitting new highs, indices here (India) remained in a range today as FII (Foreign Institutional Investors) figures for the first half of the month were not very encouraging but we did see plenty of action in the broader market with Pharma & Metals witnessing investor appetite. Despite a normal monsoon forecast today by the met department, investors remained circumspect on account of rising coronavirus cases", said S Ranganathan of LKP Securities.

Weekly Outlook: Markets experienced high volatility in the week ended on Friday, April 16, and led the frontline BSE Sensex to decline 1.53 per cent and loss of 759.29 points. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap also plunged 2.91 and 2.68 per cent respectively. Nifty-50 shed 1.46 per cent or 217 points in the entire week. Shares of Bandhan Bank, BHEL, M&M Financial, and RBL Bank declined nearly 11 per cent each in the entire week.