Sensex pares losses to end flat, Nifty below 8,900 ahead of Yellen's speech

The market on Friday extended fall for the second straight session as investors booked profits after a sharp rally that lifted the benchmark indices to near two-year highs in the previous session.

The negative trade in Asian markets, which slipped on expectations of a US interest rate hike in March, also weighed on sentiment.

The S&P BSE Sensex settled the day at 28,832, down 7 points, while the broader Nifty50 ended at at 8,897, down 2 points. 

The broader market outperformed the frontline indices. BSE Midcap gained 0.3%, while BSE Smallcap added 0.4%

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was negative. On BSE, 1,450 shares fell and 1,372 shares rose. A total of 171 shares were unchanged.

"Bargain hunting resurfaced after yesterday’s steep falls, while Nifty was helped by beneficiaries of the ongoing consolidation in the telecom space. Caution, however, continues to be the watchword, especially with global markets also on the back foot ahead of FOMC rate decision,” said Anand James, Chief Market Strategist, Geojit Financial Services. 

Buzzing stocks 

Apollo Hospitals Enterprise fell 5% to Rs 1245 after a unit of Malaysian sovereign fund Khazanah launched a block deal to sell $160 million worth of shares in the company.

Shares of BSE dipped 3% to Rs 886 to trade at its lowest level since its listing on February 3, 2017 and correcting 26% from its intra-day high of Rs 1,200, touched on the debut day.

Among gainers, GAIL (India) jumped over 3% to Rs 520 after the state-run gas company signed a time-swap deal with Swiss trader Gunvor to sell some of its US liquefied natural gas (LNG) as the Indian firm tries to ease the burden of its costly foreign LNG supplies. The stock was the leading Sensex gainer.

Reliance Industries (RIL) rose over 4% to Rs 1,288 in intraday trade after the company informed that entities forming part of the promoter group of the company intend to acquire from other promoter group entities by way of ‘inter-se’ transfer aggregating up to 1,190 million shares of RIL. The scrip settled the trade at Rs 1,259, up 2%

Shares of sugar companies were back into action with most of the stocks ending higher in the range of 5% to 12% in an otherwise weak market.

Dhampur Sugar Mills, Parrys Sugar, Dwarikesh Sugar Industries, Kesar Enterprises, Oudh Sugar Mills, Upper Ganges Sugar, Mawana Sugars, Dalmia Bharat Sugar and Industries and Ugar Sugar Works rallied up to 11% in intraday trade. 

Services PMI returns to growth 

The services sector rebounded in February – for the first time since October – as businesses recovered from the demonetisation-led disruptions seen in the previous three months, a monthly survey showed on Friday.

The Nikkei India Services Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), which tracks services sector firms on a monthly basis, stood at 50.3 in February, up from 48.7 registered in January.

Fed rate hike looms 

A chorus line of Fed officials singing of the need for higher rates has seen the implied probability of a move this month shoot to 74 percent, from just 30 percent at the start of the week.

Fed Chair Janet Yellen and Vice Chair Stanley Fischer are both due to speak later today and are expected to stick to the same tune.

Global markets

European markets opened lower. Euro Stoxx 50 was down 0.2%, while France's CAC 40 and Britain's FTSE slipped 0.3% each. Asian markets ended mostly lower, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan down 0.9%. Australia fell 0.8% and Shanghai 0.3 percent. Japan's Nikkei eased 0.5% as a weaker yen only helped limit some of the losses.

(With inputs from agencies)