Sensex, Nifty trade in range; Europe slides at opening

The benchmark indices traded in a narrow range near the day's low in afternoon trade. Shares remained under pressure amid higher crude oil prices and negative global cues. The Nifty hovered near 12,200 level.

At 13:21 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 159.84 points or 0.38% at 41,466.80. The Nifty 50 index was down 52 points or 0.42% at 12,230.20.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.23%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.39%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1200 shares rose and 1127 shares fell. A total of 182 shares were unchanged. In Nifty 50 index, 12 stocks advanced while 38 stocks declined.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (up 2.67%), Gail (India) (up 2.06%), HCL Technologies (up 1.82%), TCS (up 1.82%) and Tech Mahindra (up 1.52%) advanced.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises (down 4.85%), Asian Paints (down 2.02%), Eicher Motors (down 1.91%), HDFC Bank (down 1.61%) and Titan Company (down 1.56%) declined.

HDFC slipped 0.69% to Rs 2449.20. HDFC sold individual loans worth Rs 21,066 crore in calendar year 2019 and assigned home loans amounting to Rs 4,258 crore to HDFC Bank in the December quarter. It had assigned loans worth Rs 6,959 crore to the bank in the same period last year. It also pocketed Rs 9,020 crore on equity sale of Bandhan Bank after it was allotted shares of the lender due to its merger with Gruh Finance. HDFC was allotted 9.89% in Bandhan Bank against the 38% stake it held in Gruh.

Hero MotoCorp was up 0.19% to Rs 2433.75. The automaker said it sold 424,845 units of two-wheelers in December 2019, as compared to 453,985 units in the corresponding month of the previous year (December 2018), a decline of 6.42%.

ONGC rose 1.25% to Rs 129.60. The state-run oil major on Thursday bagged all the seven oil and gas blocks offered in the latest bid round. These seven blocks are adding exploration acreage of 18,510 square kilometres spread over three sedimentary basins of India and have a resource potential of approximately 33 billion barrels of oil and oil equivalent gas.

Foreign Markets:

European stock markets opened lower while most Asian shares traded lower as geopolitical tensions spiked after US airstrikes in Iraq killed a top Iranian military commander.

Iranian Major-General Qassim Soleimani, head of Tehran's elite Quds Force, was killed early on Friday by a U.S. airstrike on his convoy at Baghdad airport.

Iran's Foreign Minister has tweeted that the U.S. bears responsibility for all consequences of its 'rogue adventurism,' while a media report suggested that Iran's top security body will meet to discuss Tehran's response.

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