Sensex, Nifty turn choppy; RIL jumps on KKR deal

Equity benchmark Sensex pared opening losses to turn positive in early trade on Friday amid gains in index-heavyweights Reliance Industries, Infosys and SBI.

After starting over 250 points lower, the 30-share index made a U-turn to rise over 70 points to 31,005.19.

The index, turned choppy in the first hour of trade ahead of Reserve Bank of India's press conference, scheduled for 1000 hours.

NSE Nifty was quoting 4.35 points or 0.05 per cent lower at 9,101.90.

Buying in Reliance Industries offset the negative sentiment in the market as the scrip jumped over 1 per cent after the company announced the sale of a 2.32 per cent stake in its digital unit to US private equity giant KKR for Rs 11,367 crore.

This the fifth deal in four weeks that will inject a combined Rs 78,562 crore in the oil-to-telecom conglomerate to help it pare debt.

UltraTech Cement, SBI, Infosys, Tech Mahindra were among the other gainers.

On the other hand, Tata Steel, HCL Tech, PowerGrid and NTPC were among the laggards.

In the previous session, the BSE barometer settled 114.29 points or 0.37 per cent up at 30,932.90, while the broader Nifty advanced 39.70 points, or 0.44 per cent, to 9,106.25.

Foreign portfolio investors offloaded equities worth Rs 258.73 crore in the capital market on Thursday, provisional exchange data showed.

Besides stock-specific action, investors are cautious ahead of Reserve Bank of India's announcement, traders said.

Further, weak cues from global markets and spiking COVID-19 cases in the country hit investor sentiment, they added.

India witnessed the biggest single-day spike with 6,088 COVID-19 cases, taking the tally to 1.18 lakh. The death toll rose to 3,583, according to the health ministry.

Globally, the number of cases linked to the disease has crossed 51 lakh and the death toll has topped 3.32 lakh.

Bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul were trading significantly lower.

Hong Kong led a sell-off across Asian equities after China introduced proposals to enact a national security law for the city.

Stock exchanges on Wall Street ended with losses in overnight session.

International oil benchmark Brent crude futures were trading 3.72 per cent lower at USD 34.72 per barrel.