Nifty ends soft on gloomy global cues, bank stocks zooms

Stocks suffered a modest fall after rallying overnight on fresh bout of selling led by key front-line heavyweights amid uncertainty over the trajectory of the US monetary policy.
The benchmark Nifty settled lower 6 points at 8,666.90 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).
Global sentiment turned fragile after hawkish comments from some some US Federal Reserve officials that interest rates could soon be raised by noting positive developments in the US labour market.
Though the market performance was weighed down by profit taking in blue-chips, banking stocks had a field day and grabbed headlines after the SBI board on Thursday approved share swap ratio for merger of five associate banks and Bharatiya Mahila Bank with itself.

Share value of State bank of India, the country's largest lender gained 4.07 per cent to end at 258.50, steering the Nifty Bank index to a 17-month high.
Belying a promising start, bourses succumbed to profit taking and largely traded rangebound throughtout in the absence of market-moving factors before ending with small losses.

Elsewhere in region, major Asian markets closed modestly higher following a pullback in the yen which provided some relief for Japanese stocks.
The 50-share Nifty opened higher at 8,694.30 and moved in a range of 8,696.60 and 8,647.10, before settling at 8,666.90, revealing a small loss of 6.35, or 0.07 per cent.

On the sectoral front, technology, realty, FMCG and auto stocks witnessed modest selling pressure, dragging respective indices.
However, Nifty PSU Bank indices hogged limelight on the back of SBI merger news, jumping 3.53 per cent. It was followed by Metal 1.34 per cent and Nifty Bank 0.32 per cent alongwith Energy and Infra stocks.
The smallcap and midcap indices were up 0.61 and 0.60 per cent, respectively.
Notable index laggards were TCS, HDFC Bank, Eicher Motors, Bharti Artel, ITC, HDFC, Axis Bank, Reliance, Kotak Mahaindra Bank, Tata Motors, Sun Pharma, Infosys and Wipro.
Among the smart movers included L&T, Bank of Baroda, Aurobindo Pharma, Yes Bank, Hindalco, ICICI Bank, Ultratech, Ambuja Cement, BPCL, Tata Steel, Asian Paints and HUL.

Turnover in cash segment rose to Rs 20,316.60 crore from Rs 19,449.52 crore on Thursday.
A total of 10,641.45 lakh shares changed hands in 78,68,571 trades. The market capitalisation of NSE stood at Rs 107,88,999 crore.