Negative global cues pull equity markets down (Roundup)

Negative global cues and selling pressure in IT, banking and consumer durables stocks pulled the Indian equity markets down on Friday.

The wider Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed the day's trade at 9,665.80 points -- lower by 8.75 points, or 0.09 per cent.

Similarly, the 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the BSE, which opened at 31,373.52 points, closed at 31,360.63 points -- down 8.71 points, or 0.03 per cent, from its previous close at 31,369.34 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 31,426.29 points and a low of 31,286.62 points during the intra-day trade.

However, the BSE market breadth was bullish -- with 1,396 advances and 1,280 declines.

"Markets ended marginally lower on Friday as they traded in a range. Today's losses came after two sessions of gains. Weak global cues weighed on sentiment," Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities, told IANS.

"However, gains in index heavyweight Reliance Industries and a sharp fall in crude oil prices provided support to the Nifty. Major Asian markets ended on a negative note, barring the Straits and Shanghai indices. European indices like CAC 40 and DAX traded lower," Jasani added.

On the currency front, the rupee strengthened by 19 paise to 64.59 to a US dollar from its previous close of 64.78 to a greenback.

In investments, provisional data with the exchanges showed that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold stocks worth Rs 522.08 crore while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought scrips worth Rs 720.08 crore.

"Equity markets traded flat in the first half, but in the later session, the markets tried to recover and traded in green for a short time to close in the red thereafter," said Dhruv Desai, Director and Chief Operating Officer of Tradebulls.

"Market turnover was on the lower side, post the weekly expiry. The small-cap and mid-cap sectors closed on a flat note, while auto, bank, oil and gas, FMCG, and healthcare sectors ended in the green."

Sector-wise, the S&P BSE IT index fell by 72.16 points, the banking index by 65.50 points and the consumer durables index by 60.30 points.

On the other hand, the S&P BSE healthcare index rose by 145.95 points, the oil and gas index by 58.65 points and the energy index by 56.65 points.

Major Sensex gainers on Friday were: Reliance Industries, up 3.43 per cent at Rs 1,490.80; Lupin, up 3.28 per cent at Rs 1,116.75; DrReddy's Lab, up 1.39 per cent at Rs 2,705.10; Sun Pharma, up 0.88 per cent at Rs 549.70; and Bharti Airtel, up 0.85 per cent at Rs 384.65.

Major Sensex losers were: ICICI Bank, down 1.28 per cent at Rs 289.80; Axis Bank, down 1.25 per cent at Rs 503.30; Infosys, down 1.21 per cent at Rs 936; Asian Paints, down 1.20 per cent a Rs 1,117.15; and HDFC, down 1.10 per cent at Rs 1,629.20.

--IANS

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